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general account of the geological structure of the whole country be- 

 tween the mouths of the Mackenzie and Copper Mine rivers and the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. The researches made during the expeditions 

 of Captain Ross, Sir Edward Parry and Sir John Franklin, have 

 also given us a general insight into the nature of the formations 

 which constitute a large portion of the shores of the Western 

 Polar Seas. Why should I repress the feeling of patriotic pride 

 which rises within me on contemplating how vast a range of the 

 western continent has thus, in the brief period of a few years, been 

 brought within the pale of our science almost entirely by the ex- 

 ertions of English officers? Great is the gratitude we owe them; 

 yet have their services not been wholly without reward. The 

 taste for scientific research which sprung up in the minds of these 

 gallant men, spontaneously, as it were, and without the aid of regu- 

 lar systematic culture, has been to many of them a welcome relief 

 from the toil and monotony of professional duty; while to others it 

 afforded pleasurable occupation in the solitude of trackless deserts, 

 under exposure to all the rigour of an arctic climate, in the absence 

 of European indulgences, and even under the terrible apprehension 

 of impending starvation. 



The district surveyed by Captain Bayfield is bounded by hills, 

 composed of granite, sienite and trap rocks, which enter so largely 

 into the structure of the two Canadas. Clay, sand and gravel, 

 apparently recent, occupy the coast. The Mingan, the Esquimaux 

 and Anticosti Islands are of limestone, containing fossils like those 

 of Lake Huron. But the most interesting feature in this com- 

 munication is the evidence it affords of a change in the relative 

 position of land and water. In the Mingan Islands is a series 

 of shingle terraces, agreeing in character with the recent beach, 

 the most distant being 60 feet above the level of the highest 

 tide. The author describes, with great care, the different vegeta- 

 tion of each terrace, the one furthest from the shore being covered 

 with trees, the nearest almost barren ; parallel to the shore, in this 

 island, natural columns of limestone have been scooped out by the 

 action of water at different periods ; the levels of the water- worn por- 

 tions agree with those of the terraces, and the depth of the scooped 

 parts, with the rise of the present tidal wave of the St. Lawrence. 

 Captain Bayfield has noticed similar terraces on the adjacent main- 

 land and in the neighbourhood of Quebec, and thinks the phseno- 

 mena indicate successive elevations of the land rather than suc- 

 cessive depressions of the water. 



Among the subjects which have for some years past engaged the 

 thoughts of geologists, none perhaps has excited so general and in- 

 tense an interest as the Theory of Elevation. I shall avail myself, 

 therefore, of the present occasion to lay before you a connected 

 statement of the scattered facts and opinions upon which it rests. 



On entering upon this subject, it is necessary to understand di- 

 stinctly what is meant by Elevation. Definitions have recently 

 been decried, I think unwisely. The formation of definitions, 

 it has been said, and the establishment of unerring distinctions 



