Neivfoundland and Nova Scotia. 385 



crosses the west coast of Newfoundland in Bay St. Geroge, 

 probably near Robinson's Head, 20 miles southwest of 

 Stephenville. It crosses the east coast not far from the 

 axis of Bonavista Bay. Its course inside the island is 

 unknown. If the Shoal Harbor bench represents emer- 

 gence, the zero isobase is rather sharply curved to the 

 southward. To the northward of the zero isobase New- 

 foundland has been tilted to the south-southeast since its 

 ice-cap melted. The maximum uplift is at the north end 

 of the island, probably opposite Forteau, and is of the 

 order of 500 feet. The average slope of the former level 

 marked by the highest shore-line measures about 2.5 feet 

 to the mile, or 1 in 2100. De Geer's conjecture as to the 

 general type of deformation in Newfoundland is, there- 

 fore, in principle justified, though- he placed the zero 

 isobase too far south. -^ The isobases east of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence tend to run concentrically around the 

 Labrador center of glaciation. It is possible that New- 

 foundland has been faintly domed or arched and that 

 the final mapping of the isobases will indicate the second- 

 ary influence of the independent ice-cap of Newfoundland 

 on the character of the post-Glacial warping. 



Conditions at St. John's, Neivfoundland. — Fairchild has 

 hypothetically drafted the isobases in the island on the 

 assumption that the St. John's region was uplifted more 

 than 500 feet, as the present writer concluded in 1900. 

 The seriousness of this error warrants a brief statement 

 of the facts. On the return journey from the Labrador 

 coast in 1900, a few free hours were permitted at the city, 

 time enough for climbing Signal Hill on the north side of 

 the harbor. The massive, heavily striated ledges of 

 quartzitic sandstones were found to be free from erratics 

 and other glacial drift except beach-like accumulations 

 of bowlders in the hollows of this extensive, rocky hill. 

 The general surface is thus bowlderless up to the summit, 

 508 feet above sea. Across the harbor the ledges are 

 thickly dotted with bowlders above the level of 575 feet. 

 The conditions were apparently similar to those on the 

 Labrador coast, where, allowing for surf -fling," the bowl- 

 der limit gave unequivocally the heights of the highest 

 shore-line; in 1900 important emergence at St. John's 

 seemed clear. The locality was revisited last summer, 

 after the proofs of no post-Glacial emergence at Cape 



^ G. De Geer, Pioc. Boston Soc. Xat. Hist., vol. 25, p. 454, map, 1892. 



