236 cruise OF THE NEPTUNE 
active, and is said to discharge only a few small icebergs into 
one of the fiords on the south side of frobisher bay. Passing 
northward along the eastern coast of Baffin island, the snow 
patches upon the hills become larger and more numerous, but it 
is not until Cumberland gulf is passed that real glaciers appear 
in the valleys leading down to the sea. These are not very 
active, and seldom shed icebergs except on the northern part 
of the island. Active glaciers are found along the southern 
side of North Devon westward to the neighbourhood of Cum- 
ing creek, west of which the ice-cap retreats, and the shores 
and cliffs are free of ice. The valleys of the eastern and south- 
eastern coasts of Ellesmere are filled with active glaciers that 
discharge many large icebergs. In the southwestern part the 
glaciers are not very active, and usually terminate at a con- 
siderable distance from the sea. 
ECONOMIC MINERALS. 
With the exception of the area of iron-bearing rocks on the 
islands along the east coast of Hudson bay, no systematic pros- 
pecting has been done for minerals in the wide region covered 
by this report. Active mining at the present is confined to a 
mine of mica, situated at Lake harbour, on the north side of 
Hudson strait, a few miles east of Big island. Earlier mining 
consisted of the extraction of small quantities of coal from the 
outcrops of that mineral on Melville and Ellesmere islands by 
expeditions wintering there. Our knowledge of the minerals 
extends only to the chance observations of the earlier explorers, 
and to the hurried examinations made by members of the staff 
of the Geological Survey in the southern parts of the region 
under consideration. 
The occurrence of Laurentian and Huronian rocks over large 
portions of the area, both on the islands and mainland, leads to 
the belief that important mineral deposits exist there in the 
