322 THE GEOLOGV OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



true only with regard to volume or mass of the berg, 

 not with regard to height and depth. A berg may show 

 an elevation of one hundred feet above water, and yet 

 its depth below may not exceed double that arnount, but 

 its volume or mass will be about eight times the mass it 

 shows on the surface. Hence, while icebergs ground in 

 thirty and forty fathoms of water, they may expose a 

 front of one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet in 

 altitude, the broad, massive base supporting a mass about 

 one ninth of its volume above the sea-level." 



Oscillation of the Land. — From all the indications 

 noticed casually by us, such as the position of beaches 

 apparently very recently raised above the sea-level, so as 

 to be just beyond the reach of the waves, the land is 

 slowly gaining on the sea. The Rev. C. C. Carpenter, 

 missionary at Caribou Island, in the Strait of Belle Isle, 

 also informs me that this is his impression, gained both 

 from his observations and information given by the set- 

 tlers. To this last source Mr. J. F. Campbell is indebted 

 for the statement in his " Frost and Fire," that the 

 coast of Labrador is slowly rising. On the other hand, 

 the land appears to be sinking about Hudson's Strait. 



In Dr. Bell's Report for 1884 of Lieut. Gordon's 

 Hudson's Bay Expedition, it is stated that ancient stone 

 structures, erected by the Eskimos, were observed, and 

 Dr. Bell remarks : " From what I have seen of the situa- 

 tions which the Eskimos in various places in Hudson's 

 Bay and Strait choose for their camps, there appeared 

 to be little doubt that they had lived here when the sea- 

 level was twenty to thirty feet higher than it is at pres- 

 ent." 



River Terrace Period. — Owing to the great denuda- 



