188 CKUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



to the west and southwest of James bay. Similar rocks form 

 the upper beds of the Winnipeg basin. 



There is no break in the passage from Devonian to Carbon- 

 iferous in the rocks forming the Parry islands and the southern 

 part of Ellesmere, where Carboniferous rocks occupy wide areas 

 on these northern islands, but are not found to the southward 

 of Lancaster sound, showing that the Palaeozoic sea had re- 

 treated that far north before the close of the Devonian. 



The land rose above the ocean at the close of the Carbon- 

 iferous, and with the exception of the northern parts of the 

 Parry islands, the Sverdrup group and the western part of 

 Ellesmere has not been deeply submerged since. Rocks of 

 Mesozoic age, belonging to the Alpine Triassic, have been found 

 in the last-named places, but in no other localities to the south- 

 ward within the limits of this report. 



Considerable earth movements occurred at the close of the 

 Mesozoic period, causing those and older rocks to be highly 

 tilted and folded. 



Another slight submergence took place in the Miocene Ter- 

 tiary, when shallow water deposits of sand, gravel and clay, 

 associated with beds of lignite, were laid down in the wide 

 valleys along the margins of several of the Arctic islands. Such 

 deposits are known to exist in Banks island, on the western side 

 of Ellesmere and along the northern and eastern sides of Baffin 

 island. There is little doubt that other deposits of this age will 

 be discovered when more systematic search has been made for 

 them in these northern regions. Erom the character of the 

 fossil plants found in these deposits there can be little doubt 

 that during the Miocene the climate of these northern islands 

 was much warmer than at present, and approached a tropical 

 condition. 



The conditions of the land and water surfaces during the 

 Glacial period differed little from those at present, except that 



