128 CKUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



above the slopes of the glaciers flowing down the valleys to the 

 sea. The western part of the island is formed of limestone, and 

 is a flat tableland cut by deep narrow fiords that extend inland 

 many miles from the coast, and are continued beyond the salt 

 water as the valleys of small rivers. The general elevation of 

 the tableland in the eastern part is nearly 2,000 feet, but 

 this decreases in the westward, so that on the west side the 

 cliffs are below, and in the interior not much above, a thousand 

 feet. The eastern part of this limestone plateau is covered, at 

 least along the coast, by an ice-cap, and a few small glaciers 

 discharge from it directly into the sea. The ice-cap retreats 

 from the fore part of the plateau, and finally disappears before 

 the western shores of the island is reached. There is lower land 

 along the west side of the island, where there is a good growth 

 of arctic plants on which large numbers of musk-oxen feed, 

 together with some barren-ground caribou and arctic hares. 

 The Eskimos from northern parts of Baffin island often cross 

 Lancaster sound to 'hunt these animals on the western side of 

 North Devon. Walrus and white bears are also plentiful 

 amongst the ice of Wellington channel which separates North 

 Devon from Cornwallis island on the west. Sverdrup found the 

 remains of Eskimo encampments everywhere along the west 

 side of Ellesmere, and speculated as to where the people who 

 made them came from, and also how the Eskimos reached Green- 

 land. The knowledge that the Baffin natives cross to North 

 Devon, and that some of them have joined the arctic high- 

 landers of Smith sound, disposes of these speculations. Their 

 road is across Prince Regent inlet from Baffin to North Somer- 

 set, thence across Lancaster sound to the western part of North 

 Devon. The west side of that island is followed north to the 

 narrows of the western part of Jones sound, and a crossing 

 then made to the western side of Ellesmere, where game is 

 plentiful. This coast of plenty would be followed northward 

 to Bay fiord, where the natural pass across Ellesmere would 



