rO THE ARCTIC REGIONS: 217 
entirely covered with snow; we came across one of 
these this morning, that was several miles in ex- 
tent, and had scarcely a single black spot on it. 
The only animals we saw during this march were 
four arctic gulls (Larii Parasitic’) flying to the 
eastward. Our latitude by meridian altitude to- 
day was 75° 20’ 54” N. 
We started again at half-past five in the after- 
noon, but the weather was so bad that we were 
obliged to halt again at half-after nine ; for it blew 
very fresh indeed from the south-east, and snowed 
so incessantly that it was impossible to see dis- 
tinctly thirty yards before us. We were fortunate, 
however, in getting a good place to pitch our 
tents in, having reached a very deep ravine that 
afforded us excellent shelter: and there happened 
to be plenty of slatey sandstone in the same place, 
with which we paved the floors of our tents. In 
the north side of this ravine there was an immense 
accumulation of snow ; great pieces, or avalanches 
of it, which had broken off, were lying at the 
bottom of the ravine. I have hitherto omitted to 
mention that, since we got into the neighbourhood | 
of these hills, and particularly since we got on 
them, we have found a considerable difference in the 
mineralogical productions; sandstone is indeed the 
predominant mineral, for all the fixed rocks that we 
have seen are entirely composed of it; but we fre- 
quently meet with pieces of granite, quartz, and 
felspar, and sometimes hornblende. The sand- 
stone is remarkably schistose, being frequently as 
thin as roofing slate; solid blocks of it, indeed, 
