188 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
to the west and southwest of James bay. Similar rocks form 
the upper beds of the Winnipeg basin. 
There is no break in the passage from Devonian to Carbon- 
iferous in the rocks forming the Parry islands and the southern 
part of Ellesmere, where Carboniferous rocks occupy wide areas 
on these northern islands, but are not found to the southward 
of Lancaster sound, showing that the Palaeozoic sea had re- 
treated that far north before the close of the Devonian. 
The land rose above the ocean at the close of the Carbon- 
iferous, and with the exception of the northern parts of the 
Parry islands, the Sverdrup group and the western part of 
Ellesmere has not been deeply submerged since. rocks of 
Mesozoic age, belonging to the Alpine Triassic, have been found 
in the last-named places, but in no other localities to the south- 
ward within the limits of this report. 
Considerable earth movements occurred at the close of the 
Mesozoic period, causing those and older rocks to be highly 
tilted and folded. 
Another slight submergence took place in the Miocene Ter- 
tiary, when shallow water deposits of sand, gravel and clay, 
associated with beds of lignite, were laid down in the Wide 
valleys along the margins of several of the Arctic islands. Such 
deposits are known to exist in Banks island, on the western side 
of Ellesmere and along the northern and eastern sides of Baffin 
island. There is little doubt that other deposits of this age will 
be discovered when more systematic search has been made for 
them in these northern regions. From the character of the 
fossil plants found in these deposits there can be little doubt 
that during the Miocene the climate of these northern islands 
was much warmer than at present, and approached a tropical 
condition. 
The conditions of the land and water surfaces during the 
Glacial period differed little from those at present, except that 
