DALY : GEOLOGY OF THE NORTHEAST COAST OF LABRADOR. 219 



We had hoped to spend some days, if not weeks, in the study of 

 those interesting mountains, but the lateuess of the season forbade our 

 dropping anchor within reach of the noble range. Judging again 

 simply from the peculiarly dark color of the bare rock-surfaces, it 

 seems probable that the gabbro seen at Port Man vers makes up most 

 of the Kiglapait, which will thus represent the Cooliu type of gabbro 

 mountains in Scotland. 1 



On the other hand, it was discovered that banded and much con- 

 torted gneisses compose the numerous low islands lying between Ford 

 Harbor and Mugford Tickle, a distance of fifty miles. At the Tickle, 

 the undulating platform of the complex disappears beneath the quite 

 different formations of the Kaumajets. 



The Kattmajet Mountain Group. 



For a distance of fifty miles to the southward we had marked the ma- 

 jestic pile of the Bishop's Mitre with the associated mountains of the main- 

 land. Their summits were at the time covered with a fresh fall of snow ; 

 the brilliancy of the crests recalled the etymology of the name which 

 again illustrates the Eskimo's feeling for natural scenery. "Kaumajet" 

 signifies ''shining" ; the range is the Himalaya of Labrador. 



As indicated by its position, composition, and topographic character, 

 the island of Ogua'lik really forms the southern extremity of the 

 Kaumajets. Mugford Tickle separates it from the mainland. It was 

 in this nai*row channel that our anchorage was chosen. Again we had 

 occasion to mourn the slowness of our northward progress, for it would 

 have been of the highest interest to devote a fortnight at least to the 

 exploration of this region ; in order to be certain of reaching Nachvak, 

 however, we allowed but two days in which to secure information con- 

 cerning the nature of the massifs immediately surrounding the vessel. 



The nine-hundred-foot scarps of Ogua'lik would have been impressive 

 among the tamer landscapes of southern Labrador, but they were dwarfed 

 beside the mighty walls of the opposing mouutains only a mile or two 

 distant. We had entered the tickle late at night, and in the brilliant 

 starlight had discerned the huge piles looming up in solemn and form- 

 less grandeur. Their mystery became in part dispelled as a bright 

 sun disclosed a scene in its way unrivalled in Labrador. Due north 

 in the centre of the view two gracefully rounded knobs, estimated, by 

 the aid of barometric readings half-way to their summits, to be 



1 A. Geikie. Scenery of Scotland. Ed. 2, 1887, p. 215. 

 vol. xxxviii. — xo. 5 2 



