CHAPTER XIV. 



THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



In its general features the peninsula of Labrador is 

 an oblong mass of Laurentian rocks lying between the 

 50th and 60th parallels of latitude. It rises abruptly 

 from the ocean as an elevated plateau, forming the ter- 

 mination of the Laurentian chain, which here spreads 

 out into a vast waste of hills and low mountains, Thus, 

 there is, except near Cape Chidley, no well-marked, single 

 chain of mountains rising above spurs of smaller eleva- 

 tions, but simply an interior height of land with isolated 

 peaks, irregular in its course, from which streams take 

 their rise and flow by various directions into the ocean. 



This plateau of hills and low mountains rises abruptly 



on the coast from the ocean to a height of from 500 to 



1,000 feet, and inland continues to rise in peaks to a 



height of from 1,500 to about 6,000 feet until it reaches 



the water-shed at a distance of 100 to 200 miles from the 



coast. On the western slope this plateau falls gradually 



away by an easy descent towards the shores of Hudson's 



Bay. Dr. Bell states that the northern coast increases 



gradually northward, " until within seventy statute miles 



of Cape Chudleigh, where it has attained a height of 



about six thousand feet above the sea." Thence the 



elevations or peaks decrease in height to Cape Chidley 



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