504 THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



treated, the land which it had covered stood mostly lower 

 than now, as is shown by the occurrence of fossiliferous marine 

 deposits overlying the glacial drift up to considerable eleva- 

 tions. Near Boston, and northeast to Cape Ann, the coast 

 seems to have been submerged to a slight depth, probably not 

 exceeding ten to twenty -five feet. Proceeding toward the 

 north and northwest, the elevation of the marine beds lying 

 on the glacial drift increases to about two hundred and twenty- 

 five feet in Maine, about five hundred and twenty feet in the 

 St. Lawrence Valley at Montreal, and four hundred and forty 

 feet at a distance of one hundred and thirty miles west-south- 

 west of Montreal ; but eastward, along the St. Lawrence, it 

 decreases to three hundred and seventy-five feet opposite the 

 Saguenay, and does not exceed two hundred feet in the basin 

 of the Bay of Chaleurs ; while these marine deposits are want- 

 ing in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island.* This subsidence 

 accords well with the explanation that it was due to the press- 

 ure of the ice -weight, which was greatest on the highlands 

 between the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay. 



Along the East Main coast of Hudson Bay and on Hudson 

 Strait raised beaches are conspicuous, according to Dr. Robert 

 Bell, up to heights of at least three hundred feet.f In the 

 region draining from the southwest to James Bay, Dr. Bell 

 reports marine shells in stratified beds overlying the glacial 

 drift along the Moose, Mattagami, and Missinaibi Rivers up 

 to about three hundred feet above the sea ; J along the Albany 



* A. S. Packard, Jr., " Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History,** 

 vol. i, pp. 231-262. J. W. Dawson, " Notes on the Post-Pliocene Geology of 

 Canada" ; and " American Journal of Science," III, vol.xxv, 1883, pp. 200-202. 

 C. H. Hitchcock, " Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science," Portland, 1873, vol. xxii, pp. 169-1*75; "Geology of New Hamp- 

 shire," vol. iii, pp. 279-282 ; and " Geological Magazine," II, vol. vi, 1879, pp. 

 248-250. R. Chalmers, " Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada," sec. iv, 

 1886, pp. 139-145. W. Upham, "Proceedings of Boston Society of Natural 

 History," vol. xxiv, pp. 127-141, December, 1888; " American Journal of Sci- 

 ence," May, 1889. 



f " Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, Report of Progress 

 for 1877-'78," p. 32 C; for 1882-'83-'84, p. 31 DD. 



X " Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, Report of Progress 

 for 1875-'76," p. 340; for 1877-78, p. 7 C, 



