182 BELL ON THE SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGY 



in progress. I might however add that I was informed by an 

 old resident, that on some of the flats between Riviere du Loup 

 and Riviere Ouelle large drifted logs lie rotting in places now 

 rarely reached by the highest tides, and even then they are cover- 

 ed by only a few inches of water — quite insufficient to float such 

 large timber. On the north coast of Gaspe I observed the 

 remains of a very old wreck lying among spruce bushes above 

 high-water mark, and at the time supposed it to be an evidence 

 of elevation. I am inclined to regard it as doubtful, however 

 since reading the accounts in the newspapers of the effects of 

 the great gale and unprecedentedly high tide which recently visit- 

 ed these shores, sweeping away storehouses and boats supposed 

 to be altogether beyond the influence of the sea. 



The gradual subsidence of the Atlantic coast of the United 

 States, appears to be proved beyond a doubt. In the Geological 

 Journal for 1861, Dr. Gesner states that between New England 

 and Newfoundland, the coast of the British provinces is rising 

 • in some places, while it is being submerged in others. Perhaps 

 the most remarkable proof of subsidence is the sunken forests in 

 Minas Bay, fully described by Dr. Dawson in his Acadian Geology. 

 The elevation of Gaspe, now going on, is probably a continuation 

 of the same movement which caused the whole peninsula to rise 

 above the sea, and which appears to be connected with the other 

 undulatory movements extending along the coast of the whole 

 continent. It is worthy of remark, in connection with this subject 

 that in Ohio and Upper Canada, a very gentle inclination appears 

 to have been detected in some of the ancient water margins. 

 On the Labrador coast, besides the evidence of recent upheaval 

 afforded by the raised sand and limestone-gravel plains, and the 

 worn pillars of Mingan, Sir Charles Lyell states that some of 

 the rocks above the sea level at this locality are perforated by the 

 burrows of the Saxicava in such a good state of preservation as 

 to show that they have not been exposed to the weather for a very 

 great length of time. In addition to these facts, the occurrence of 

 whales' bones, covered by moss and lying among the bushes above 

 the influence of the tide, in both Labrador and Newfoundland, 

 affords geological evidence of elevation, while a gradual rise of 

 that island above the sea appears to have been observed by the 

 inhabitants, as is shewn by the following extract from the New- 

 foundland Times of October, 1847 : — 



" It is a fact woithy of notice that the whole of the land in 



