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



To the west and southwest of James Bay the till, covering 

 the nearly flat Silurian and Devonian rocks, is generally over- 

 spread by stratified clays. Marine shells are found in these up 

 to an elevation of 400 to 500 feet, but on the eastern side of the 

 bay no fossils have yet been detected at such high levels, owing 

 perhaps to the scarcity there of marine deposits and to the fact 

 that but little search has yet been made for them. In the 

 sandy deposits among the hills about twenty miles south of 

 Cape Wolstenholme, I saw abundance of Saxieava rugosa and 

 Tellina Grcenlandica with smaller numbers of a few other 

 species, at heights varying from the sea level up to about 200 

 feet ; and last summer I found brackish water varieties of a 

 number of the commoner species of our northern marine shells 

 up to 70 feet above the sea in the clay banks along the lower 

 portion of the Noddawai River. 



Around the head of James Bay and up its western side the 

 encroachment of the outer lines of the forest upon the wide 

 alluvial flats which extend all along these shores and are con- 

 stantly broadening towards the sea is good evidence that a ris- 

 ing of the land is now going on. The existing condition in 

 this part of the bay is well described by Mr. A. P. Low in 

 speaking of Agoomski Island. On page 24 J. Geol. Survey 

 Report for 1887, he says : 



"The island closely resembles the adjoining mainland in phys- 

 ical character, being very low and swampy. The shore-line above 

 high-water mark is made up of muddy flats covered in part with 

 grasses and sedges, followed further inland by thick growths of 

 small willows, these in turn giving place to small black spruce 

 and tamarac as slightly higher ground is reached. The line of 

 these trees is often over two miles inland from high-water mark, 

 itself a long distance from the sea at low water." 



No living mollusks are to be found in James Bay except 

 perhaps in the northern part, owing probably to the muddy 

 and brackish nature of the water, but abundance of the dead 

 shells of a considerable number of kinds are washed out of the 

 clays forming the present shores. Some of these belong to 

 moderately deep-water species and are well-preserved, retain- 

 ing the epidermis. This, of course, shows a recent elevation 

 of the sea bottom. 



Richmond Gulf on the eastern side is separated from the 

 main bay by a high bar of stratified rocks, which strike with 

 its length and dip westward or towards the open sea. This 

 bar is cut through by several gaps, all resembling one another, 

 except in their heights above the sea, and all bearing evidence 

 of their having been well worn channels of communication at 

 more or less remote times according to the greater or less eleva- 



