3 
The present writer had found in 1915 and 1916 that the Labrador 
ice-sheet did not reach the sea in the Torngat region of Labrador, the 
mountainous northeastern projection of the continent at the opening of 
Hudson strait; but that a large area of tableland there shows no signs of 
glaciation, though profound U-valleys and fiords were left by large valley 
glaciers moving seawards. If the Labrador ice-sheet failed to cover the 
highest lands to the northeast of the continent it seemed probable that 
the highest lands toward the southeast, too, might have escaped its action 
(Figure 1). 
There was so little positive evidence to be found in print as to the 
real conditions of Gaspe peninsula during Glacial times that it seemed 
worth while to study the Pleistocene of that region. Accordingly the 
summers of 1918 and 1919 were devoted to an examination of the coasts 
and mountains of Gaspe with this in view, resulting in a fairly complete 
traverse of the coast-line and visits to the highest summits of Shickshock 
mountains, the backbone of the peninsula. As Gaspe is 150 miles long 
from east to west and in places 90 miles wide, it will be understood that 
the work could not be done in much detail, particularly since there is no 
map of the mountains except the very rough one published by the Geolo- 
gical Survey in 1884. 
Elevations were determined by the use of two aneroids checked by 
sea-level readings furnished by the courtesy of the Meteorological Service, 
Toronto. In the case of the higher elevations corrections were made for 
air temperatures. 
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION IN GASPE 
Although the first landing of white men in Canada took place on the 
east end of Gaspe, where Cartier planted a cross in 1534, the peninsula is 
still largely covered with primeval forest and is almost roadless except 
along its shores. The Intercolonial railway cuts across its base southeast- 
erly from Mont-Joli near the St. Lawrence, following the Matapedia 
valley to the mouth of Restigouche river; the Canada and Gulf Terminal 
.railway runs from Mont-Joli to Matane on the north shore; and the Quebec 
Oriental and the Atlantic, Quebec, and Western railways combined connect 
Matapedia with Gaspe basin, a well sheltered and commodious harbour 
on the eastern coast. These railways keep close to the shore and do nothing 
to open up the interior. 
A public road runs completely around the peninsula, but the part of 
it between Ste. Ann e-des-Monts and Fox River, on the northeast side, is 
so mountainous and rough as to be almost useless except for the strongest 
vehicles. At various places wagon roads run a few miles inland, usually 
following up river valleys; and one lumber road extends from Cascapedia 
railway station, on the south coast, up, Cascapedia river for 45 miles to the 
Federal Zinc and Lead mine, almost in the geographical centre of the 
peninsula. There are no roads across the peninsula and there is no direct 
communication between the settlements on the north and those on the 
south, so that they differ from one another almost as much as if belonging 
to separate countries. 
The lack of roads from north to south is, of course, accounted for by 
the chain of Shickshock mountains, which are very rugged and run from 
2,000 to more than 4,000 feet in height. 
