File:The province of Quebec- geographical and social studies (1922) (14796048003).jpg

Identifier: provinceofquebec00suth (find matches)
Title: The province of Quebec: geographical and social studies
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Sutherland, John Campbell, 1860-1936
Subjects: Geology
Publisher: Montreal : Renouf Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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eIce Age. We now come to the last stage of the Pleisto-cene, the Champlain Sea or marine stage. TheProvince then sank slowly some six hundredfeet below its present level. The sea invadedthe land, covering a large part of this area, aswell as of Eastern Ontario and adjoining statesof the United States. It is not certain that theice-sheet had wholly disappeared, and it is pos-sible that some of it remained on the highlands. The beaches of this recent Champlain Sea area marked feature of the Province of Quebec.The higher beaches are, of course, the older.The land rose gradually, and there were longpauses in the ascent. Thus, Dorchester andSherbrooke streets in Montreal are two of thesea-beaches. Their width indicates the consid-erable length of time that was necessary fortheir formation. Montreal has seven distinctChamplain Sea beaches. The 220-foot terraceat the water-works on Mount Royal is one, andextends up the Ottawa Valley, being plainlyseen at Lachute and other places on the North
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THE GREAT ICB AGE 59 Shore Railway. At one beach on Mount Royal,at an elevation of 568 feet above sea level, SirWilliam Dawson found the distinctive fossils ofthis period—the shells of species now livingIn the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Champlain Sea deposited the thick mantleof clay which covers the St. Lawrence Low-lands, the Lake St. John district and other lowerportions of the Province. In the Lowlands it issometimes 50 to 100 feet in thickness. If theice-sheet removed accumulated soil from theLaurentian Plateau in the early stages of thePleistocene, large compensation was made bythe Champlain Sea at its close. The clay is therock flour ground up by the ice-sheet, aidedby the load of rocks and pebbles it pushed along.The clay is not only a good soil in itself but isrendered more valuable by the immense quan-tities of phosphatic shells it contains. Theseshells constantly decomposing furnish plantfood to the soil. Several species of Leda predominate in theclay, hence the name Leda

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