﻿1861.] 



GESNEK MOVEMENTS OF LAND. 



387 



Province of Nova Scotia. It is composed of red sandstone ; no 

 workable strata of coal have been found within its limits. Of several 

 sinkings of the earth noted by tbe writer during his geological survey 

 of the island, one of them merits attention for being more recent 

 than any other that met his observation. It is situated between 

 Lennox Island and Cascumpec, a deep and well- sheltered harbour. 

 The sea has here thrown up mounds of sand from the shallow water, 

 which are separated from the mainland by lagoons. The lagoon 

 between [Richmond Bay and Cascumpec is upwards of thirty miles 

 in length. Cascumpec lagoon is a beautiful sheet of water, eighteen 

 miles long and a furlong in breadth, abounding in shellfish and 

 wild fowl ; its mainland side is a dense wilderness, and this part of 

 the coast was explored in canoes paddled by Indians. 



The harbour of Cascumpec is formed by an extensive peat-bog on 

 one side, and a long mound of sea-sand on the other ; it has sufficient 

 water to float the largest ships. The peat forms a perpendicular 

 wall, which was measured at low water, and found to be 19 feet 

 beneath the sea. It is also perpendicular above the water and 

 forms the shore to the distance of two miles and a half. This peat- 

 bog is composed of the common sphagneous plants interlaid with the 

 pine, hemlock, and other forest-trees and low bushes, some of which 

 are still in upright positions. There are no higher lands in the rear 

 from which this bog could have made a slide, nor any remaining 

 site from which it could have departed. 



In the lagoon, the sea flowed, at the time of the writer's visit, into 

 groves of maple, beech, birch, &c, which are constantly falling 

 down from the sea-water overflowing their roots. The marshes, 

 where they meet the water, are filled with fallen timber; and all taken 

 together presents a desolate picture of the changes that are still in 

 progress. This part of the island is very low and level ; and, from 

 the gradual submergence of the land, the drainage of the country is 

 obstructed, and lands now capable of being cleared and cultivated, 

 will in the course of years be overflowed by the sea, unless the sub- 

 mersion should be arrested. 



At numerous places on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 

 on the coast of Labrador, deposits of sand and clay containing recent 

 shells and relics of marine plants are found at heights varying from 5 

 to 80 feet above the level of the sea. These elevated tracts are seen, 

 at considerable distances from the present shores, with notches worn 

 out of the rocks by waves and currents of water ; there are also 

 limestones perforated by the Mytilus lithophagus, from which the sea 

 has long since been withdrawn. At some localities there are also 

 evidences of depression, similar to those already described. 



Labrador, fyc. — The Atlantic coast of Labrador and the Island of 

 Newfoundland present the same phenomena, although they are less 

 perfectly delineated by reason of the ice ; for ice-floes break down the 

 shore, and icebergs deposit mounds of sand, gravel, and boulders 

 along the sea-bord, the winter and summer aspects of which are 

 altogether dissimilar. 



Conclusion. — From what has been stated, it must not be under- 



