262 GEOLOGICAL REMARKS. Chap. XVI. 



one of them was unusually large, its internal diameter being 

 14 feet. Strewed about on the ice or in every snow hut, 

 were shavings and chips of fresh wood ; in one of them I 

 found a child's toy— a miniature sledge — made of wood ; and 

 the men soon collected enough seal's blubber to supply us 

 with fuel for our homeward march. No traces of natives 

 were found upon either shore at this place, nor had I met 

 with any since leaving the western coast of the island to the 

 southward of Cape Crozier. 



Having passed through nearly to the eastern end of the 

 strait, we cut off some distance by crossing overland, so as to 

 reach the sea-coast 3 or 4 miles southward of Cape Sabine. 

 A few willow grouse, two foxes, and a young reindeer were 

 seen. There was some vegetation upon the land, and 

 animals appeared to resort to this locality in tolerable abun- 

 dance ; the contrast between it and the low, barren shores 

 we had so recently come from was striking indeed ! 



Nothing can exceed the gloom and desolation of the 

 western coast of King William's Island ; Hobson and myself 

 had some considerable experience of it; his sojourn there 

 exceeded a month. Its climate seems different from that of 

 the eastern coast \ it is more exposed to north-west winds, 

 and the air was almost constantly loaded with chilling fogs. 

 Everywhere upon the shores of the island I noticed boulders 

 of dark gneiss ; upon the west coast they were generally 

 small, and of a dark gray colour. About the north part 

 of the island Hobson found a good deal of sandstone, 

 the probable result of ice-drift from Melville Island or 

 Banks Land. 



The west coast gives one the idea of its having risen 

 within a recent geological period from the sea — not sud- 

 denly, but at regular intervals; the numerous terraces or 

 beach-marks form long horizontal lines, rising very gradually, 

 and in due proportion as their distance increases from the 



