50 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



in the evening, when a number of small islands showed our posi- 

 tion to be off Cape Horsburg, the northeastern point of Philpot 

 island, on the northern side of the entrance to Lancaster sound ; 

 we had therefore passed across the mouth of Jones sound with- 

 out a sight of the land on either side. 



LANCASTER SOUND. 



Short glimpses of the land on the north side of Lancaster 

 sound were obtained when the fog lifted at intervals during the 

 night. These showed a high country, with many moderately 

 sharp peaks rising in the foreground above the white mantle 

 of ice of the great glaciers of the valleys. Discharging glaciers 

 were particularly numerous along the head of the wide Croker 

 bay. 



At eight o'clock in the morning we arrived at the mouth of 

 Cuming creek, a long narrow bay a few miles west of Croker 

 bay. Being short of fresh water, and the weather promising to 

 be bad, w r e proceeded ten miles up the bay before finding a place 

 sufficiently shallow to drop anchor, but this was finally done on 

 the edge of a bank formed by the material brought down by a 

 small river flowing into the head of the bay. We remained at 

 anchor here until the next evening, the wind during that time 

 blowing strongly from the eastward, accompanied with thick fog 

 and occasional flurries of snow. 



The crystalline rocks, which occupy the eastern part of the 

 great island of North Devon, are overlaid by nearly flat-bedded 

 limestones, in the western part commencing on the west side of 

 Croker bay. This change of rock is accompanied by a change 

 in the physical character of the coast as the ragged irregular 

 granite hills of the eastern land are replaced by a flat tableland 

 which rises in nearly perpendicular cliffs directly from the sea 

 to elevations varying from 800 to 1,200 feet. Behind these the 

 land rises in steps to nearly 2,000 feet, where it is lost beneath 



