The Physiography of Arctic Canada, with Special Reference to the Area South of Parry Channel

xix, 336 pp. From the jacket: "Based on a series of studies sponsored by the RAND Corporation, this book brings together in one volume all that is known of the physiography of arctic Canada: its physical description and geological history, and the geomorphological processes shaping the present-day landscape. This work will be of interest to all students of the circumpolar lands and will serve as the foundation for study and research... Bird opens his discussion of the region with a survey of its distant Precambrian origins at the time of the formation of the massive Canadian Shield. He then turns to the characteristic features of the contemporary environment, its climate, glaciers, permafrost, soils, and vegetation. Through a discussion of the sedimentary record and the morphology he traces the formation of the arctic uplands and lowlands, the development of its drainage systems, the effects of the Pleistocene glaciation, and the continual contest between the land and the sea. Finally he examines in detail the geomorphic processes operating today; the varieties of weathering and erosion, the transportation of the weathered mantle, and the roles that wind, water, ice, and snow play in shaping the arctic landscape."