W. H. Twenhofel — Physiography of Newfoundland. 3 



the production of the surface are examined and the conclusion 

 is reached that the uplands of Newfoundland are the remnants 

 left by dissection of a once almost perfect peneplain. Finally, 

 the relation of the western settlements to the coastal physiog- 

 raphy is briefly stated and a few notes are added on the 

 physiography of the Belle Isle coast of Labrador. 



General Outline oe the Island. 



The general outline of Newfoundland is very irregular, the 

 coast being diversified by many bays and headlands, with the 

 result that its length is tripled if not quadrupled. For descrip- 

 tive purposes the island may be divided into three parts : (1) 

 the main body elongated east and west along the parallel of 

 48° 30', terminating on the west in the Long Range Mountains ; 

 (2) the northern peninsula, formed for the most part of the 

 Long Range mountains and the foreland to the west ; and (3) 

 the peninsula of Avalon on the southeast, almost cut off from 

 the rest of the island by Trinity and Placentia Bays. Possibly 

 a fourth part may be considered as made by the peninsula 

 lying between Placentia Bay and Fortune Bay farther to the 

 west; of which St. Pierre and Great and Little Miquelon 

 Islands may be considered the extension. 



Thoroughly land-locked harbors, extending, in the case of 

 many, miles into the land, are common features, some of them, 

 ten to fifteen miles from the sea, having depths of water in 

 their middle portions not permitting the anchorage of ordinary 

 vessels. 



Character of the Rocks. 



The variations of the rocks in texture, hardness, and solu- 

 bility have been important factors of physiographic control in 

 the development of the Newfoundland surface, and their 

 regional distribution is as follows : 



The northern peninsula of Newfoundland consists of an 

 interior axis formed of metamorphic and igneous crystalline 

 rocks of Laurentian or undetermined age (Howley, Map of 

 Newfoundland). The axis is bordered on the northwest, from 

 Cape Norman to Table Point, by a belt of limestones, gen- 

 erally magnesian, which begin in the Lower Cambrian and 

 extend to about the middle of the Ordovician, having in some 

 places a width of twenty miles and upward. South from 

 Table Point to the Bay of Islands the belt is continued by thick 

 beds of fine-grained shale to coarse sandstone and the coarsest 

 of limestone conglomerate, in which blocks of interstratified 

 limestone and shale with lengths exceeding 250 feet are not 

 uncommon. The bold and rugged coast between Bonne Bay 

 and the north end of Port au Port Bay is composed of basic 



