50 



shore, where the water plane rises steadily towards Quebec 

 all the way from Little Metis. Even though marine 

 shells have been found only part way up to this level, 

 as for instance at 375 feet (114-3 m.) at Portneuf, 30 

 miles (50 km.) west of Quebec, it seems certain that the 

 submergence registered by the gravels at 600 feet (180 m.) 

 is also marine. 



Along the electric tramway from Quebec to Ste. Anne 

 de Beaupre, there is an opportunity to see the Micmac 

 sea-cliff and shelf the strongest and most continuous 

 of the old shorelines of the lower St. Lawrence. In 

 the town of Quebec itself, the twenty-foot terrace is 

 obscured by the streets and buildings of the old town. 

 On the Levis shore several fragments appear. After 

 crossing the delta-like flats at the mouth of the Charles 

 river, near Beauport, the trolley line comes close up 

 to the foot of the steep sea-cliff of this ancient shoreline. 

 From Beauport all the way to Ste. Anne and St. Joachim, 

 at the end of the railway, the cliff is continuous and 

 nowhere far from the track. It is a precipitous turf- 

 covered bank, from 20 to 50 feet (6 to 15 m.) high. While 

 its course instead of being straight is gently curved, there 

 are no marked irregularities, neither bold headland nor 

 sharp re-entrant. It is a typically "mature" coast. 

 From the foot of the cliff the terrace slants gently outward 

 for several hundred yards to the present high tide mark, 

 and continues in the form of half submerged mud flats 

 for an equal distance offshore. Its total width, from the 

 foot of the bluff to the outer edge of the flats ranges from 

 half a mile to a mile and a half (o-8 to 2-4 km.). Across 

 the channel, on the north side of Orleans island, one can 

 see a similar shelf and bluff. This extends completely 

 around the island. 



At a number of points along the railway it is possible 

 to see that the cliff has been cut back not simply in glacial 

 drift, but in hard rock. At Eglise de Beauport, for instance, 

 fresh cuts in the face of the Micmac bluff show soft slates 

 dipping seaward at a steep angle, nearly coincident with 

 the slope of the bluff itself. One might conclude that the 

 escarpment was not a wave-cut cliff but merely a structural 

 one, if he saw it at this locality only. At Montmorency 

 Falls, likewise, the red shales, deeply decayed, appear 

 behind the cliff in cross-section in the walls of the gorge. 

 The fall itself lies on the boundary between these shales 



