314 (loldtlucait — Twenty-Foot Terrace and 



takes the view that the final uplift of ahout 33 feet at Chris- 

 tiania was completed soon after the beginning of the Christian 

 era, and that since that time the coast has been stationary.* 



While the data on coastal movements gathered in Scandi- 

 navia, and the conclusions drawn from them are not necessa- 

 rily a reliable guide to the interpretation of the observations 

 in Canada, the similarity between these two regions, both as 

 regards their geologic structure and their glacial history, 

 makes the comparison of more than passing interest. Noting 

 first the points of likeness, we find : 



(a) In both regions the emergence of the coast seems to have 

 begun while the ice was withdrawing from the seaboard, if 

 not, indeed, somewhat before that time. In Scandinavia this 

 is shown by the absence of the Yoldia clays inside the termi- 

 nal moraine ; in Canada, by the faint expression of the highest 

 beach. 



(b) In both regions the first emergence seems at length to 

 have been followed by a temporary subsidence ; and this, in 

 turn, by a re-elevation. While the elevated positions of the 

 shorelines record the respective upward movements, in each 

 case, the conclusions regarding the downward movement is 

 based, in Scandinavia, chiefly upon the occurrence of fossilif- 

 erous marine clays overlying those which hold the Ancylus 

 fauna ; in Canada, while finding support in the submerged 

 forest beds along the coast, it rests mainly upon the physio- 

 graphic character of the Micmac shoreline. So far as the 

 writer has been able to discover, the Scandinavians have not 

 used abnormal strength in a wave-cut terrace and sea-cliff as 

 an argument for slow coastal subsidence. 



(c) In Canada, as in Scandinavia, the vertical amount of 

 subsidence must have been small. As we have seen (p. 305), 

 the outer edge of the Micmac shelf, three miles from shore, 

 is only 50 or 60 feet lower than the inner edge at the foot of 

 the bluffs. A part of this depth is doubtless due to down- 

 ward erosion on the shelf. It is not probable that the entire 

 depth is to be attributed to the downward movement of the 

 coast at that time, for it is hardly likely that subsidence would 

 keep pace with the littoral planation so closely as to allow the 

 development of a slope of equilibrium without downward 

 erosion on the shelf. If, however, we assume that the coast 

 did sink just fast enough to prevent downward erosion on the 

 shelf while the waves were trimming back the cliffs, this move- 

 ment of the coast amounted to 50 or 60 feet. While the Mic- 

 mac terrace admits the possibility of a subsidence as great as 

 that, it is much more probable that the downward movement 

 here, as in Scandinavia, was a slight one, of perhaps 10 or 20 

 feet. 



* Op. cit., pp. 123, 125, and table and figure on p. 283, 



