GEOLOGY 197 



and pink, very quartzose gneiss. This had been cut by a coarse 

 diabase, and both had been foliated and broken by the intrusion 

 of the newer granite. Dikes of a newer diabase cut all the 

 other rocks. 



The granites prevail about Wager inlet, but there are more 

 and larger areas of the dark basic rocks about that great bay 

 than to the southward, making it a more promising field for 

 economic minerals, especially as these basic rocks generally 

 carry sulphides, and Rae reported free gold to have been found 

 about the head of the inlet. 



All the geological information concerning the western coast 

 of Hudson bay to the northward of Wager inlet is contained in 

 the narratives of the voyages of Parry and Dr. Rae. The ex- 

 plorations of Rae ended at Repulse bay. He reported only 

 Laurentian rocks along the coast, with granite-gneisses predom- 

 inating, these being accompanied by considerable areas of green- 

 stones, showing the rocks in the northern part to be very like 

 those along the southern shores of Roes Welcome. 



Parry explored the west side of Fox channel from Frozen 

 strait to Fury and Hecla strait. The result of his observations 

 has been summarized by Dr. Dawson as follows : ' The geologi- 

 cal specimens brought back were examined by Prof. Jameson, 

 and the detailed maps of the expedition include indications of 

 the character of the rock at so many places, as to afford the 

 means of tracing the geological outlines with very considerable 

 accuracy. Granitic and gneissic rocks occupy the whole of the 

 southern part of the east shore of Melville peninsula, and are 

 continued northward behind a low track of limestone country, 

 forming a range of mountains in the centre of the peninsula to 

 Hecla and Fury strait. They also form the south shore of this 

 strait, and most of the islands in it, and apparently the whole 

 eastern shore of the adjacent south part of Cockburn " island." 



' The rocks referred above, in a general way, to the Archssan, 



