R. Bell — Rising of the Land around Hudson Bay. 219 



Akt. XXIII. — Proofs of the Rising of the Land around 

 Hudson Bay ; by Robert Bell, of the Geological Survey 

 of Canada. 



[Read before the Geological Society of America, Philadelphia, 27th December, 



1895. Abstract.] 



In the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, it has been found 

 from actual levellings by Gilbert, Spencer and Upham, that 

 the old shore-lines are not perfectly horizontal, but that they 

 slope upward in a northeasterly direction at rates varying in 

 different regions from a few inches to a foot and even two feet 

 per mile. If this upward slope were continued in the same 

 direction to the northeastern extremity of Labrador, 1300 

 miles from Lake Huron, the increase in the elevation might 

 there amount to 1000 or 2000 feet. It is scarcely probable that 

 the differential elevation is constant and regular for such a 

 great distance. Still, it is a fact that well preserved shore- 

 lines are to be seen at great heights in the northern parts of 

 Labrador. In my Geological Survey Report for 1884, I have 

 mentioned ancient beaches at Nachvak, 140 miles south of 

 Hudson Strait, which have an estimated altitude of 1500 feet 

 above the sea. 



The two sides of Hudson Bay present very different phys- 

 ical characters. The eastern is formed mostly of crystalline 

 rocks and, as a rule, is more or less elevated, with a broken sur- 

 face sloping somewhat rapidly westward or towards the bay ; 

 while the western side is mostly very low and much of it is 

 underlaid by nearly horizontal Silurian and Devonian strata. 

 These low shores are accompanied by shallow water extending 

 far to seaward. The head of James Bay, which forms the 

 southern prolongation of Hudson Bay, is extremely shallow, 

 but the various rivers which flow into it have cut channels 

 through the soft shallows, and by means of these the land may 

 be approached with sea-going vessels. The whole of Hudson 

 Bay may be said to be shallow in proportion to its great area, 

 as the soundings show that it does not average more than 70 

 fathoms in depth. 



The shores of the bay everywhere afford abundant evidence 

 that there has been a comparatively rapid rise in the land and 

 that the elevation is still going on. I have mentioned numer- 

 ous proofs of this in my various official reports on the geology 

 of these regions from 1875 to 1886, and I shall now recall a 

 few of those and give fresh ones in addition, some of which 

 came to my knowledge on a journey to the bay during the past 

 summer. It is well known to those who have paid any atten- 

 tion to the subject that since the establishment of the posts of 



