530 



APPENDIX. 



[No. I. 



pear. A few ranges of trap hills intersect this plain also, but they have much 

 less elevation than those we passed higher up the stream. 



The river in its section of the plain, as far as Bloody Fall, presents alter- 

 nately cliffs of reddish sandstone, and red -coloured slaty indurated clay or 

 marl, and shelving white clay banks. At Bloody Fall, the stream cuts through 

 a thick bed of dark purplish red felspar rock, similar to that observed at the 

 Rocky Defile, and associated as at that place, with a rock composed principally 

 of light red felspar and quartz, but which is probably a species of red secon- 

 dary granite. At the Bloody Fall, the felspar rock is covered to the depth 

 of six or seven hundred feet with a bed of greyish white, and rather tenaceous 

 clay, which being deeply intersected with ravines, forms steep hills. Nearer 

 the sea, the river is bounded by very steep cliffs of yellowish- white sand ; and 

 on the sea-coast, the above-mentioned red granite re-appears on the west 

 bank of the river, forming a rugged ridge about two hundred and fifty feet high. 



The islands that we observed in the Arctic Sea are uniformly rocky, and 

 generally bounded with mural precipices of trap rocks, clinkstone or clay- 

 stone, which have a surprising uniformity of appearance. The main shore, 

 however, presents some diversity. For sixty miles eastward of the Copper- 

 Mine River, the beach is low, shelving, and gravelly, and the ground in the 

 interior has a gentle rise and even outline. Towards Tree River, however, 

 the trap rocks re- appearing form an exceedingly sterile and rocky coast. The 

 cliffs of the islands on which we landed were composed of greenstone, dark 

 brown clay stone, porphyry, and perhaps of basalt, but of the occurrence of 

 the last-mentioned rock we are not quite certain. Three or four miles to the 

 westward of Port Ep worth, a steep promontory is formed of a rock which is com- 

 posed of red felspar, quartz, and is a variety of the secondary granite already 

 mentioned. At Port Epworth, the country is exceedingly sterile; one cliff 

 rising above another with stony valleys between, almost destitute of herbage. 

 The rocks observed here were liver-brown clinkstone porphyry, with a few 

 beds of earthy greenstone. The same formation extended to the mouth of 

 Wentzel's River, the trap cliffs succeeding each other with tiresome uniformity, 

 and their debris entirely covering the narrow valleys that intervene to the ex- 

 clusion of all vegetation. None of the rivers on this part of the coast bring 

 down any drift timber. To the eastward of Wentzel's River, the coast run- 

 ning out forms Cape Barrow. We rounded this large projection in thick 







