REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR IQII II5 



lobsters were caught on Entry in 191 1, but it is easy work to drop a 

 lobster trap and pull it up again loaded. Even at three cents a lobster 

 this means something for the frugal islanders. And yet the other 

 wealth of the sea might be made vastly more productive than it now 

 is. But why make muckle mair? This is the Isle of Repose, its 

 treeless slopes and plain, the shadeless groves of the stagyrite. 



Topography. The contour of Entry is suggested by the 

 accompanying east-west cross section which may be applied to the 

 plane map. 



Red sandstone plateau. The red Permic sandstones of the lower 

 plateau are restricted to the northwest corner on both sides of the 

 sand spit and herethey are displayed in all their brilliance of color, 

 made more effective than elsewhere on the Magdalens by the way 

 in which the winds have stripped it of its overlying soil. I have 

 before directed attention to the constitution of these, the latest 

 sediments of the islands, and may here only restate that the striking 

 band of glistening white residual sand lying everywhere beneath 

 the vegetable mold is here brilliantly developed in every cliff section. 

 The layer of angular diabase pebbles w^hich lies directly beneath 

 this white sand, is even more conspicuously displayed on Entry 

 than anywhere else on the islands and there are broad areas on the 

 north side where soil and white sand have been torn away by the 

 winds, exposing this layer of angular gravel in very striking display. 

 This widespread deposit lying on the summit of the red sandstone 

 plateau and incorporated into it points to an obscure but rather 

 extraordinary phenomenon, as though a final stage in the deposit 

 of the sandstone had been the sweeping over the sea floor of an 

 extensive mass of volcanic debris. From any knowledge I have 

 now I dare not say that it points to a contemporary outburst of 

 volcanic debris, or to an overriding tidal wave which may have even 

 covered the low cliffs after they were raised to their present 

 elevation.^ 



^ The tidal wave action suggested is not too remote. We have evidence 

 at hand that such things still happen in the gulf. On January 7, 1912, the 

 sea rose suddenly in the gulf at 7 p. m., a few hours after high tide, and 

 swept all the lower levels of the Gaspe coast from Cape des Rosier to 

 Perce, causing much damage on the beaches, submerging the stores and other 

 buildings on the ''point" at Gaspe Basin and rising to a height of six to 

 eight feet above highest tide. The wave was not followed by another and 

 the water subsided promptly. The action suggests a submarine earthquake 

 of slight moment in the northern gulf, quite possibly some dislocation along 

 appalachian fault lines in the older rocks beneath the upper gulf, but the 



