118 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
ISLANDS of GROUP I. 
The islands of Hudson bay and Hudson strait are, naturally, 
divided into two sections by their physical characters, the first 
composed of those formed from the crystalline Archaean rocks, 
the second of the low islands of limestone. The first division 
includes Resolution, Big, Salisbury, Charles and Nottingham 
islands, together with many smaller ones along the north side 
of hudson strait. These islands are physically alike, being 
moderately high and having ragged shore lines. 
Resolution island lies on the north side of the eastern 
entrance to Hudson strait. It is nearly forty miles long, and 
averages twenty-five miles in breadth. The general elevation of 
the interior is under five hundred feet, and the land appears to 
rise quickly from the shores. The island is fringed by many 
rocky islets, and a number of good harbours are said to occur 
on all sides of it, but owing to the strong currents about the 
coast it has been rarely visited, except by ships caught in the 
ice. 
Big island lies close to the north shore of the strait, and about 
one hundred and forty miles beyond its eastern entrance. The 
island is triangular in shape; the longest side, parallel to the 
mainland, has a length of thirty miles, the other two sides being 
each about twenty-five miles long. In physical character and 
elevation it is very like Resolution. 
Charles is a narrow island some twenty-five miles long, 
situated in the southern part of the strait, being distant about 
twenty-five miles from the south side; its west end is ninety 
miles from Cape wolstenholme at the western end of the strait. 
The eastern half of the island is high and rugged, and is con- 
nected with the lower rocky western end by a narrow sandy 
neck. The highest part of the western end does not reach 
an altitude of two hundred feet, and terminates in a long 
