44 CEUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



hundreds of them are seen aground on ledges for miles on both 

 sides of the glacier. 



The westward course was followed a few miles farther, after 

 which the ship turned north through the fine channel between 

 Cape Atholl and Wolstenholm island. A small amount of 

 loose ice was met with in the channel and in the crossing to 

 Saunders island. The crystalline rocks which occupy the coast 

 from Cape York give place here and to the northward to almost 

 horizontal beds of sandstones and lighter coloured rock, prob- 

 ably limestone. Large masses of dark trap are associated with 

 these bedded rocks, either as sills injected along the bedding, 

 or as dikes approaching more or less closely to the vertical. 



Cape Parry was passed at eight o'clock on the morning of 

 the 10th, when, crossing the mouth of Whale sound, we followed 

 the channel between Northumberland and Herbert islands, 

 having a fine view of their high cliffs of sandstone and light- 

 coloured rock, which rise almost perpendicularly from 500 to 

 1,000 feet above the sea. Similar cliffs occupy the coast of the 

 mainland from the north side of Inglefield gulf to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Etah, at the narrowest part of Smith sound. The 

 day was very fine, and only a few loose pans of floe ice and 

 many icebergs embarrassed the course followed by the ship. 



The upper portions of Whale sound, Inglefield gulf and 

 McCormick bay were filled with ice, which from a distance 

 appeared to be still unbroken from the shores. During the day 

 walrus were frequently seen in groups upon the floating pans 

 of ice, where many large seals lay basking in the sun. The 

 walrus were most numerous on the ice between Cape Alexander 

 and Etah, where attempts were made to photograph the larger 

 groups, but without success, as it was late in the evening and 

 the animals were unusually wild. 



As the coast is followed northward the cliffs and the main- 

 land behind become lower, so that about Cape Alexander the 



