Sketch of the Geology of the Arctic Regions. iL 
Alluvial Rocks. 
Alluvial marly deposits from the snow waters passing through and 
over the limestone strata in the summer, occur on the shores and in 
the vallies; and fragments of limestone are scattered in different di- 
rections, by the same agency; but the limestone hills in many parts, 
and the country generally were more or less covered with bowlders 
of primitive rocks.* Some of them were of very large dimensions, 
weighing from three to fifty tons. Granite, gneiss, and sienite the 
largest—those of talc, quartz, iron glance, actynolite, and ores, small- 
er and less numerous.t They abound near the sea coast, gradually 
diminishing in size and number, and at the distance of fourteen or 
sixteen miles from the sea, they are comparatively rare and small, 
not more than three or four inches in diameter. “The nearest known 
fixed primitive rocks, were upwards of ahundred miles distant from 
these remarkable bowlders.” 
IV. Istanps anp CouNnTRIES BORDERING oN Hupson’s Bay. 
The lands bordering on Hudson’s Bay, and the islands which it 
encloses are generally hilly, and are usually disposed in ranges, but 
are not very lofty, the average being about eight hundred feet, and 
the highest summits not exceeding fifteen hundred above the level 
of the sea. ‘The vallies are narrow and rugged,” and the cliffs of- 
ten display mural fronts of more than one hundred feet in height.— 
Wherever the shores are low, flats and shoals extend far out making 
a shallow sea, but where the coast is rocky and precipitous the sea 
is proportionally deep, and the shores bold. The country is covered 
with snow and ice the greater part of the year, often exhibiting the 
most beautiful colors and picturesque forms. The upper soil or loose 
surface varies from two or three inches to a foot in depth, beneath 
which the ground is frozen like the most solid rock. In the summer, 
a few plants obtain a brief existence in the chinks of the rocks, in 
favorable and sheltered places. The general aspect of the country 
indicates the primitive rock formation, and “no vestige of volcanic 
action has any where been seen.” 
The following classification of the rocks found in the islands, and 
countries bordering on Hudson’s Bay, between 60° and 69° of N. 
* Jameson’s notes, &c. t App. to Parry’s third voyage. 
