No. I.] GEOGNOSTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 533 



been spared. The coast presented the same appearance as far as Point 



Turnagain. 



The horizontal strata consisted of a kind of greyish-blue slaty clay, much 

 impregnated with quartz, and passing into the new red sandstone. Cliffs of 

 greenstone, porphyry slate, or red amygdaloid, were frequently imposed on 

 the clay. At Slate Clay Point, on the eastern side of Walker's Bay, the layers 

 of the indurated slate clay were disposed in a concentric manner, so as to form 

 large globular concretions. The outer layers of the concretions running in- 

 sensibly into each other. 



Having now enumerated, as distinctly as circumstances would permit, the 

 rocks we had an opportunity of observing on the coast, we may state that the 

 new red sandstone formation seems to prevail. All the islands visited were 

 formed of trap or porphyry belonging to that formation, and judging from simi- 

 larity of form, the rocks of the other islands belong to the same class. The gneiss 

 formation is next in extent, and indeed it appears to run nearly parallel to the 

 coast within the red sandstone from Cape Barrow across Hood's River above 

 Wilberforce Falls to the bottom of Bathurst's Inlet, and from thence to 

 Hope's Bay, on the western side of Melville Sound. The only foreign beds 

 we observed in the gneiss were granite, perhaps quartz rock, and horn- 



blendic gneiss 



We saw no clay or mica slate, nor did we observe 



any formations intermediate between the gneiss, and new red sandstone ; nor, 

 except at Cape Barrow, where granite predominates, any other formation 

 than the two just mentioned. Our opportunities for observation, however, 

 were not extensive, the necessity of proceeding without delay limiting our 

 geognostical and botanical excursions to the short period that was required to 

 prepare breakfast or supper. 



From Point Turnagain, we proceeded to Hood's River, and traced it for 

 some distance. The river, at its mouth, is from one to three hundred yard^ 

 wide, and is bounded by steep and high banks of clay, reposing on flcetz rocks, 

 which occasionally shew themselves. At the first rapid, in lat. 67° 19' 23", a 

 bed of reddish secondary granite crosses the stream. At the second rapid, in 

 lat. 67° 12' 14", and in other places, the rocks consist mostly of the red indu- 

 rated slaty clay, or the red amygdaloid, which we often saw on the coast asso- 

 ciated with the new red sandstone. Six or seven mites higher up, at Wilber 



