1876 M'COKMICK VALLEY. 341 



account of his journey through the Pass; the estimated 

 height of which is about 400 feet, 



1 Having completed our work at the Eepulse Bay 

 depot, we started on the 8th of May, and proceeded 

 along an excellent ice-foot towards the mouth of 

 M'Cormick Valley. The cliffs of this coast, under 

 which we passed, present a bold, unweathered surface of 

 dark limestone, apparently devoid of fossils, but con- 

 taining some yellow ore, probably iron pyrites. On 

 reaching the mouth of the valley we camped on a 

 low flat piece of land bordered by old raised beaches. 

 After three hours on the march we made good four 

 miles, temperature 5°. 



' At 10 p.m. started and proceeded along M'Cormick 

 Valley, which for the first two miles is a plain half a 

 mile in width, sloping up to the southward by a gentle 

 gradient, and lined on both sides by unmistakable 

 raised beaches. On either side rise cliffs and peaked 

 mountains from 2,000 to 3,000 feet in height ; the cliffs 

 on the east side being formed of vertical, slightly 

 contorted layers of a clayey barren limestone. All 

 about this reach of the valley we found numerous frag- 

 ments of shells, which mark the area of the old sea- 

 bed. Some of the raised beaches present clearly cut 

 sections twenty feet high, showing well-defined alternate 

 layers a half to two inches thick of stratified mud and 

 sand. 



'As the land loses its marine character, we 

 entered a narrow winding valley, nearly level, and 

 bordered by rounded hills of about two hundred feet 

 in height. While prospecting from the summit of one 

 of these I picked up a drift fossil, apparently a worn 



