352 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



great polar or Labrador current exerted its full power. 

 The temperature being so even throughout the northern 

 hemispheres of the globe, there was a great uniformity 

 in the distribution of Hfe, and certain species enjoyed a 

 wide distribution where now they are restricted to com- 

 paratively narrow areas. Toward the close of this period 

 the Greenland seal, the walrus, and the Vermont whale 

 {Beluga Vermontand), flourished. The Age of great 

 Mammals dated from this early period. An arctic fauna 

 and flora inhabited the coast between the sea and the 

 low snow line, and the flora and fauna which are now 

 found only on our alpine "heights, or in cold, isolated 

 spots on the coast of Maine and the northern lakes, then 

 peopled the surface of New England and Canada. All 

 the biological features of this epoch partook of an inter- 

 mixture of the boreal and arctic faunas and floras that 

 are now more distinctly circumscribed into narrower 

 areas. 



We have no evidence of an intercontinental commu- 

 nication with Europe during this period. Then, as now, 

 there was a local facies imprinted on those animals 

 whose remains have survived, exhibiting the same faunal 

 distinctions, and even more strongly marked than now. 



The close of this period was signalized by a great 

 amelioration of climate, by broad areas of marine clays 

 finely laminated, and having more sand and loam inter- 

 mixed than in the lowest and oldest beds. This was the 

 transition from a period of broad estuaries, and, at a late 

 stage, of shallow seas, to the next epoch of a secular 

 emergence. It ushered in the — 



III. Period of raised Beaches (Saxicava Sands). This 

 necessarily implies a great denudation of the glacial clays 



