DALY : GEOLOGY OF THE NORTHEAST COAST OF LABRADOR. 209 



intervals, we were compelled to drop anchor and wait for the short-lived 

 favorable winds on which our progress against the south-flowing current 

 depended. The longest run made between the straits and Hebron, a 

 distance of eight hundred miles, was only fifty-three miles in length. 

 Twenty-two halts of greater or less duration were made en this part 

 of the journey. Nachvak Bay, eleven hundred miles from St. John's, 

 and the objective point of the expedition, was not reached until August 

 21st. Thus but a small portion of the summer remained for the explo- 

 ration of the high mountains in the north. At the end of two weeks we 

 were forced to weigh anchor and begin our homeward journey. 



Disappointing as our rate of progress was in this one respect, there 

 yet remained the advantage that, with so many opportunities to land in 

 southern Labrador, we were able to sample, with fair continuity, the geol- 

 ogy of a coast-line which is in every part in need of investigation. In fact, 

 some of the most interesting problems of the summer would have been 

 necessarily left untouched, if our early ambition to make a rapid north- 

 ward run had been satisfied. The return to St. John's was accomplished 

 in four weeks, during which time, several gaps in the required series of 

 observations were filled up. We dropped anchor for the last time in the 

 early morning of Oct. 3d, having been out a few hours less than a hun- 

 dred days. In that period, we had been thirty-nine days at anchor against 

 our will, but there was, at each detention, always the consolation of an 

 opportunity to get a view, however hurried, of a region full of novelty 

 and at times no less interesting than the goal of our endeavor, the 

 Torngats of the north. At the same time, it is clear that nothing 

 more than a reconnaissance could be made at any of the anchorages. 



Observations on Topography and Bed-rock Geology. 



The general form and composition of the old-mountain plateau of 

 Labrador have already been admirably treated by Packard, 1 Bell, and 

 Low, and by the writer of the article " Labrador " in the Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica. These and earlier writers agree that the northeastern coast 

 of the peninsula marks the edge of the great Archaean shield of North 

 America; and, further, that, if exception be made of the "Domino 

 quartzite," the Eamah slates, and certain occurrences of sedimentary 

 rocks in Nachvak Bay, the bed-rock of the coastal belt is throughout 



1 A bibliography relating to works on Labrador is published in " The Labrador 

 Coast" by A. S. Packard, Jr. New York and London, 1891. 



