OF THE PENINSULA OP GASPE. 179 



river bed, was observed to be worn smooth by the action of water, 

 and covered by several feet of gravel. 



Behind St. John's Bay on (he west coast of Newfoundland Mr # 

 James Richardson observed a set of ancient sea margins, seven in 

 number, rising above one another at intervals varying from 50 to 

 150 feet. The lowest is 500, and the highest 1225 feet, above the 

 sea, and each is marked by a horizontal belt of boulders and pebbles 

 of Potsdam sandstone, arranged by the waves of the sea when it 

 stood at these levels. At Blanc-Sablon Bay, on the Labrador side 

 of the Straits ofBelleisle, as many as fourteen distinct terraces 

 with beach gravel on each, occur between 47 and 357 feet above 

 high-water mark. There is thus sufficient evidence of a great de- 

 pression and subsequent elevation of the land in this region, 

 while in Gaspe a bank of stratified sand and gravel, eighty feet high, 

 which occurs on the Magdalen River at an elevation estimated at 

 1600 feet above the sea, and similar deposits at many intermediate 

 levels, indicate that a gradual rise of equal amount has taken place 

 in the peninsula, but possibly at a different period. I am not aware 

 that far transported boulders have been noticed anywhere on the 

 high lands between Gaspe" and the meridian of Quebec, but 

 •must leave this uncertainty, and also the reason of their appar- 

 ent absence in Gaspd, to be solved by future research, and proceed 

 to describe the modified drift of the district. 



The narrow border of clay land extending almost continuously 

 from Quebec along the south side of the St. Lawrence, terminates- 

 a few miles below Matan ; and to the east of this locality only a 

 few small patches of clay occur on the north coast. The largest 

 of these is at the mouth of the Magdalen River, and comprises 

 about 1000 acres on the west side of Magdalen Bay. It is pro- 

 bably fit for the manufacture of bricks, and holds marine shells. 

 No stratified clay whatever appears to exist on the eastern coast, 

 but in the southern part, it occurs along the Bay of Chaleur for 

 some distance on each side of the mouth of the Great Cascapedia 

 River. In this clay, Sir William Logan found shells of Mya and 

 Saxicava in a great number of beds lying above one another, to 

 the height of seventeen feet over high-watermark, in the position 

 which they occupied when in life. Each bed is separated from the 

 one below it by a thin layer of sand, which also fills the tubular 

 openings through which the inhabitants of the shells once com- 

 municated with the surface. At L'Anse au Gascon, near Port 

 Daniel, Mya arenaria, M, tnmcata, Cardium Grcenlandicum, and 



