THE LABRADOR DRIFT. 29I 



Quaternary Formation. — In studying the drift phe- 

 nomena of Labrador as compared with those of the tem- 

 perate zone, we shall at the outset find ourselves disap- 

 pointed in our anticipations as to their relative develop- 

 ment. In a region which has evidently been exposed to 

 the most intense action of glaciers, prolonged over a 

 period vastly longer than in Canada or New England, 

 we have surviving this period of denudation and wasting 

 away of the surface but few drift scratches remaining 

 on any exposed surfaces below a height of five hundred 

 feet above the sea, and superficial deposits which are re- 

 duced almost to a minimum as compared with those of 

 the temperate zone. 



In this absence of drift and more recent deposits, the 

 Labrador plateau agrees exactly with all mountainous 

 districts above the level of most deciduous trees. We 

 are to look to the lowlands about their base for the 

 debris and drift borne down by streams or glaciers from 

 the mountain centres. The Labrador plateau has been 

 greatly denuded. Its highest mountains have been trun- 

 cated and their peaks sliced off by the denuding agent 

 as if by a knife. The Domino gneiss has lost at least 

 three hundred to four hundred feet of its comparatively 

 soft strata, as evidenced by the lofty trap hills which now 

 rise above the strata of altered sandstones. The trap is 

 as firm and hard at the top of the overflows as at the 

 base. The loose material resulting from this long.con- 

 tinued denudation is not now found in the interior or on 

 the coast of Labrador, except in very small quantities. 

 It was evidently conveyed southwards by icebergs and 

 floe- or shore-ice, and forms the bottom of the St. Law- 

 rence Gulf, and the banks and shoals southward. In 



