136 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



to break through the mass of sedimentary deposits. Thus the St 

 Lawrence river has almost of necessity an outer curve that follows 

 the course of the fault and of the folded slate and limestone mount- 

 ains of Gaspe, while to the north of the fault line and the buried 

 river channel lies the island of Anticosti whose rock strata, full of 

 fossils, lie almost horizontal and were beyond the influence of the 

 mountain making. 



This revulsion from the north projected the axial line of resist- 

 ance southward against the normal course of the other folds and 

 protruded into them a disturbing antagonistic force. The Xova 

 Scotia anticlines were beyond the reach of this projected influence 

 but the folds between were disordered and crosscut and weakened. 

 The picturesquely ragged coast at Perce is due to a complete collapse 

 of a tremendous mountain fold which has vastly deranged the 

 original succession of the rock strata. 



The gulf lands had sunk low soon after the mountain-making 

 period was over, and during the succeeding times of the Coal and 

 probably even before, it was chiefly a vast drainage basin receiving 

 fresh land waters with their heavy loads of sediment, then again 

 elevated into a sand desert or great stretches of bars and dunes, 

 and still at times depressed again so that the salt waters came in 

 bringing their characteristic life forms. Then again, in later 

 geological days, after the day of the Coal and the sand bars was 

 over, the region was again elevated into land and the rocks of that 

 land still fringe the gulf shores and make the islands of Prince 

 Edward and the Magdalens. 



The submarine course of the St Lawrence river across the gulf 

 is still clearly indicated on the Admiralty charts ; from its present 

 mouth southeast it extends, far to the east of Gaspe, east of the 

 Magdalen islands and thence outward to the Atlantic by the passage 

 between Cape Breton island on the west and Newfoundland on the 

 east (Cabot strait). This valley was made when the gulf bottom 

 was land. 



The chart accompanying shows the curves of 30 fathoms and 

 100 fathoms. It is very clear that the deep channel outside 

 the 100 fathom line could not be made by the scouring of the present 

 stream over the rocky bottom of the gulf. A more detailed chart of 

 the gulf would show these depths dropping off from the shore in a 

 succession of stages, or one might say terraces indicative of the 

 gradual and periodical rise of the land bounding the ancient river 

 while the river itself was cutting downward and narrowing its 



