R. Bell — Rising of the Land around Hudson Bay. 221 



In support of the paroxysmal tide theory, it is related that 

 once during a northern gale the tide was forced as high as the 

 front gate in the palisaded enclosure at Rupert House near the 

 head of James Bay, and it is added that this would be equiva- 

 lent to a height of about thirty feet. When at Rupert House 

 last summer, I could hear no authentic account of such an 

 extraordinary rise in the water and besides the gate referred to 

 did not appear to be more than fifteen feet above the sea-level. 

 But even if such a great rise in the water had once occurred at 

 this place, it would prove nothing in regard to the raised 

 beaches on the long straight shore out on the open sea. Hud- 

 son Bay is about 1000 miles long and its outline is funnel- 

 shaped! with James Bay representing the contracted extremity. 

 Rupert House is situated near the end of this narrow continu- 

 ation, so that just here we should expect very high water with 

 a spring tide and northern gales driving the sea in from the 

 broad expanse outside and heaping it up at the extremity of 

 the constantly narrowing termination. 



The gravel terraces seen at various elevations around the 

 coves and upon the thousands of small islands along the east 

 coast of James Bay are remarkably sharp and well-preserved 

 and almost as fresh-lookiDg as if they had been formed but yes- 

 terday. They are generally bare of trees or bushes and the yet 

 smooth surface-pebbles are only partially covered by lichens. 

 Similar terraces may be seen farther north on this coast and in 

 Hudson Strait, wherever material exists out of which they may 

 be formed. On Marble Island the raised beaches are very 

 plainly visible on account of the whiteness of their smooth, 

 quartzite shingle. 



On the west side of Hudson Bay the land is generally too 

 low to admit of the relatively higher sea-levels of former times 

 having been recorded in the shape of terraces near the present 

 shore line, but if we go back into the woods we shall find 

 unmistakable evidence of the existence of such higher levels 

 at comparatively recent periods. These consist of long, low 

 ridges of drifted materials, such as we see in a fresher state at 

 the present high tide mark. They are made up of driftwood 

 and other vegetable debris in a completely decayed condition, 

 covered by moss and having trees and shrubs growing upon 

 them. In some places we may still trace the forms of the larger 

 trunks which had been cast ashore by the waves at high tide. 

 Between these ridges and the present shore there is a thick 

 growth of the coniferous forest and the ground is carpeted with 

 moss, over which the tide has never passed. Examples of these 

 low ridges may be seen near the head of tide-water at the mouth 

 of Nelson River, at Attawapishkat River and in places between 

 the latter and Albany River. 



