GEOLOGY 213 
Silurian limestones form the southern third of Banks 
island, being overlaid in the northern part by beds of Devonian 
and lower Carboniferous age. Dr. Rae reports the entire south- 
ern coast of Victoria island as being composed entirely of 
Silurian limestone. 
' The northern part of King William land, with Matty island 
to the east of it, are described by Sir John Ross as of limestone. 
Simpson states the eastern part of the south shore to be also of 
limestone, and Haughton dealing principally with the results 
of M'Clintock's voyage writes as follows : " The east side of 
King William island, though composed of Silurian limestone 
like the rest of the island, is strewed with blocks of black and 
red micaceous gneiss, like that of Montreal island, and black 
metamorphic clay-slate, in which the crystals of mica are just 
commencing to be developed. It is probable that the granitoid 
rocks appear at the surface somewhere to the eastward of this 
locality." 
' Numerous excellent though brief notes on the geology of the 
eastern and southwestern coasts of the Boothian peninsula occur 
in Sir John Ross' remarkable narrative referred to. From these 
we learn that the eastern shore is composed of limestone to Port 
Logan (latitude 71 21'), where a high range of hills-which 
is seen at a distance estimated at thirty miles inland at Creswell 
bay (further north) and runs north-and-south-impinged on 
the shore, and was found to consist of granitoid and gneissic 
rocks. Thence southward, from notes given in the body of the 
narrative, a narrow border of limestone may skirt the shore to 
about latitude 70 35', though the geological appendix does not 
make any mention of this.' 
' The narrow^ neck of the Boothian peninsula, which was 
crossed by Ross on several lines, is, from his description, com- 
posed of granitic rocks, with some outliers of limestone. One 
of these, definitely mentioned in the narrative but not in the 
