GEOLOGY 189 
there has been a considerable uplift of the land, as proved by 
the marine terraces found along the coasts. The maximum 
uplift probably amounted to 700 feet along the eastern side of 
Baffin island, and was perhaps slightly less on the islands 
farther north, where Schei reports beaches 600 feet and up- 
wards above the present sea level. This being the case, a new 
explanation must be found for the depression and subsequent 
uplift of the land covered by ice, if the uplift be practically the 
same in northern Ellesmere, where the accumulation of ice is 
nearly as great to-day as at any previous time, while in the 
southern part of Baffin island a great thickness of ice was 
present during the Glacial period and has now completely dis- 
appeared. Perhaps we have been taking cause for effect, and 
the uplift due to some unknown cause may have been the cause 
of a lessening of the ice; certainly the almost equal rise of the 
land throughout the Arctic islands is an argument against the 
subsidence of the northern lands being due to the burden of the 
ice-cap, and the subsequent uplift due to the disappearance of 
that burden. 
DETAILS OF THE GEOLOGY BY ISLAND groups. 
It is exceedingly difficult to write a readable, concise and 
comprehensive account of the geology of the territory included 
in this report without subdividing it in some manner. This 
has been attempted by considering the different formations 
under their separate headings, and dividing the territory, as has 
been done in the geographical description, into groups of 
islands, and considering each of the great geological divisions 
separately. 
