96 B GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



above the highest point now ever reached by the tide. The terrace is 

 generally but faintly impressed, which would seem to show that the 

 water did not remain for a long time at this level. Several indistinct 

 benches of lesser height are met with elsewhere in the same vicinity 

 down to the present water-line. In Masset Inlet a faintly marked 

 terrace at a height about the same with that above given was also' seen. 



Shingly point?. Along the low north-eastern part of the islands, and more particularly 

 on that part of the coast between Cumshewa and Skidegate, the points 

 are often found to be composed of shingle, forming a flat of greater or 

 less width standing about twenty feet above the present high- water 

 mark, and in most instances covered with a certain quantity of 

 vegetable soil which supports a forest. These have evidently been 

 produced by the waves acting at different times in opposing directions, 

 but imply a subsequent elevation nearly equal to their height. On 

 the north shore, east of Masset, several tiers of low terraces, now densely 

 wooded, are found. On some parts of the east shore the land is 

 evidently making by the addition of drift sand, while in others the 



No recent c i a y cliffs are being gradually cut back by the sea. There is no 

 evidence that any elevation has occurred within the period of growth 

 of the present forest, as large trees stand in the sheltered inlets quite 

 down to the sea level. It would on the contrary appear that, if any- 

 thing, the latest movement may have been a slight subsidence, for in 

 many places, especially in the bays, the waves are now by degrees 

 washing the vegetable soil away from the roots of the trees and under- 

 mining them. At the point on the east side of Masset Inlet the sea is 

 evidently encroaching pretty rapidly on the forest. One fact, however, 

 which would seem to show that any change of level must have been 

 slight or have occurred very many years ago, is the existence of a 

 narrow level border near high-water mark, seen especially where the 

 rocks on the shore are pretty soft, and evidently produced by the 



Line of greatest mechanical action of the waves. It was difficult at first to account for 

 the fact that this line of maximum horizontal erosion should lie near 

 the high-tide mark, where the rocks are for the shortest time exposed 

 to the wash of the sea, but it is explained by the circumstance that 

 below this line the rocks are to a great extent preserved from wear 

 by a thick growth of sea-weed and acorn-shells. 



Additional Notes on the Glaciation and Superficial Deposits of 

 Other Parts of the Coast. 



In the channels penetrating the mainland and intervening between 

 the numerous islands, from the southern extremity of Alaska to the 

 north end of "Vancouver Island, marks of the passage of glacier-ice, 

 generally in strict conformity to the direction of the passage, are to be 



