360 EXPANSION OF SMITH SOUND. 



that Grinnell Land extends beyond the limit of my 

 explorations. I hold, as Inglefield did before me, that 

 Smith Sound expands into the Polar Basin. Beyond 

 the narrow passage between Cape Alexander and 

 Cape Isabella, the water widens steadily up to Cape 

 Frazer, where it expands abruptly. On the Green- 

 land side the coast trends regularly to the eastward, 

 until it reaches Cape Agassiz, where it dips under 

 the glacier and is lost to observation. That cape 

 is composed of primitive rock, and is the end of a 

 mountain spur. This same rock is visible at many 

 places along the coast, but is mostly covered with the 

 deposit of sandstone and greenstone, which forms the 

 tall cliffs of the coast-line, until it crops out about 

 thirty miles in the interior into a mountain chain, 

 which, (in company with Mr. Wilson), I crossed, in 

 1853, to find the mer de glace hemmed in behind it. 

 Further to the north the mer de glace has poured 

 down into the Polar Sea, and pushing its way onward 

 through the water, it has at length reached Washing- 

 ton Land, and swelled southward into Smith Sound. 

 That the face of Humboldt Glacier trends more to 

 the eastward than is exhibited on Dr. Kane's chart, I 

 have shown ; and that Washington Land will be 

 found to lie much farther in the same direction, I 

 have sufficient grounds for believing. According to 

 the report of Morton, it is to be inferred that this 

 island is but a continuation of the same granitic ridge 

 which breaks off abruptly at Cape Agassiz, and ap- 

 pears again above the sea at Cape Forbes, in a line 

 conformable with the Greenland range. It is prob- 

 able then that at some remote period this Washing- 

 ton Land stood in the expansion of Smith Sound, 

 washed by water on every side, — that lying to the 



