87 



the region was entered by Bell, and particularly by Ells 

 and Low, who made a resurvey of the peninsula in 1878- 

 1882 and issued an entire series of maps of the area. Clarke 

 has more recently studied the coastal region with special 

 reference to the composition and correlations of its faunas 

 and stratigraphy. 



Along the shores of the peninsula are outcrops of the 

 Cambro-Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Devono- 

 Carboniferous (Bonaventure) formations. Not all of 

 these formations have been deposited in one basin. The 

 evidence is very clear that the earliest endroits were the 

 broad marine channels of an ancient St. Lawrence trough 

 having the SW.-NE. trend of the orogenic axes of to-day, 

 with continental land at the north (the Labrador crystalline 

 shield) and at the south, for the most part outside the 

 boundaries of the present land. In some degree the bays 

 of to-day (e.g. Gaspe bay, Mai bay) running in from the 

 coast of the Gulf lie in ancient synclines which date back 

 to the later stages of the Devonian. Sea erosion, however, 

 has been so efficient that the lower reaches of the St. 

 Lawrence river which washes the north shore of the 

 peninsula are bounded by a wave cut rock platform in 

 places 8 miles (14-4 km.) in width, lying at a depth of 

 not more than 300 feet (90 m.) below the present water 

 level. Where the sigmoid curve of the Appalachian ridges 

 is most pronounced, that is, in the little peninsula of the 

 Forillon at the north between the St. Lawrence river and 

 Gaspe bay, the outermost eastern tip of the Appalachian 

 system is to be found in the fishing ground known as the 

 "American Bank", which, submerged a few fathoms, 

 lies 10 miles (18 km.) out to sea from the tip of Cape 

 Gaspe, in the SE. course of the mountain folds. This fact 

 has been determined by the dredged rocks from this bank. 



The course of the St. Lawrence river is believed to be 

 determined by a deep thrust fault of the Palaeozoics to the 

 south against the crystalline Labrador shield to the north. 

 This probability is more forcibly pronounced in the lower 

 part of the river bounding the Gaspe shores than it is 

 farther inland, for in Gaspe there is no single evidence 

 that this river traverses the crystalline shield in such 

 direction as to leave any part of the crystallines to the 

 south. This highly significant directive fault line was 

 long ago located by Sir William Logan and is commonly 

 known as "Logan's fault". Along this fault plane and 



