.Evidence of GUiriafion in Lahvador. — Tarr. 193 
because of the angularity of the topograph}'. Froiu the evi- 
dence of the topography I thought that these high mountains, 
which rise from near the sea to elevations of from two to five 
or six tliousand feet, had escaped ice scouring, though the 
rounded contours of the valleys indicated the presence of 
ice action in them. My first thought was that, though the 
ice had spread through the valleys, the elevated peaks liad 
risen above the surface as peninsulas and nunataks, like those 
of the present Greenland coast. Later study in Greenland 
proved the danger of drawing inferences concerning the ab- 
sence of glaciation upon the basis of tojDOgraphic form as 
seen from a steamer several miles from the coast.* The 
rounded outline so characteristic of an ice-scoured country is 
good positive evidence of ice action, but the absence of such 
action is not of equal value in proof of the opposite. When 
the pre-glacial surface was high and rugged, the same amount 
of scouring that rounded the lower hills may have failed to 
produce rounded contours on the higlier lands. Moreover a 
peak projecting into the ice is less eroded than the valleys 
whose surface is covered by the ice currents of greatest ac- 
tivity. In addition to this, the lower lands are longest cov- 
ered, being the first reached and the last abandoned by a gen- 
eral ice sheet. 
Therefore, although there is a striking difference in topo- 
graphy between the hills near Turnavik and the mountains 
around cape Mugford, I shall be very much surprised if fu- 
ture study proves that the higher hills were not covered and 
perceptibly modified by ice action. During the last stages of 
ice action these mountains no doubt rose above tlie ice as land. 
It was a source of disappointment that other plans prevented 
our landing and studying this highland portion of the Labrft- 
dor coast. This region offers a splendid opportunity for de- 
terming the thickness of the northern portion of the conti- 
nental glacier which spread out from the Labrador center; 
and in some one of the northern expeditions it should be 
made a stopping place for this purpose. The rounded topog- 
raphy of glacial regions reappears on the peninsula which 
forms tlie northeastern portion of Labrador. 
*This point is discussed in a paper to be published soon in vol. viii, 
Hull. Geol. Soc. Am. 
