LABRADOR FOSSILS." 79 



insect visitors are flies (Muscidse), especially the flesh fly 

 and allied forms. A bumble-bee occasionally presents 

 himself, more rarely a wasp, with an occasional ichneu- 

 mon fly, but the two-winged flies, and those of not 

 many species, were constant visitors to the August 

 flowers. The black flies still remained to this date terri- 

 ble scourges in calm weather, though in cloudy days and 

 at night they mostly disappeared. 



Wandering through the fog and drizzle along the mud 

 flats on the northern side of the island I picked up 

 Aporrhais occidentalis, Fusus tornatus, Cardita borealis, 

 large valves of Saxicava rugosa, Buccinum and Astarte 

 sulcata and compressa ; these and Pecten islandicus and 

 ♦other shells forming much the same assemblage as I had 

 ■ dredged a few days previous out in the straits in fifty 

 fathoms. The only recent shells lying about were shal- 

 low-water forms, such as the common clam, Tellina 

 fusca and the razor shell. It was evident that here was 

 a raised sea-bottom, and the Quaternary formation. In 

 the afternoon I returned to the spot and dug up many 

 more shells mingled with pieces of a yellow limestone 

 containing Silurian fossils, brachiopods, and corals. This 

 horizon, then, represented a deep sea-bottom, over which 

 the open sea must have stood at least 300 feet, while the 

 clay fossils of the mouth of the Esquimaux River must 

 have lived in a deep muddy bay sheltered from the waves 

 and currents of the open sea. The drift deposits of La- 

 brador are scanty in extent compared with those of the 

 Maine coa.st. They are but isolated patches compared 

 with the extensive beds of sand and clay which compose 

 the Quaternary deposits of New England. 



On the 2 2d August we made our last excursion up 



