MORSE AND MAHLEMOOT. 437 



thickness, nearly down to the base ; it is then composed of black 

 carboniferous shales alone, which abound in organic remains and 

 are occasionally interstratified by limestone much deflected. This 

 contortion is so great as to form two regularly banded arches. Sev- 

 eral tiny snow-water cascades tumble down its ravines and boldly 

 plunge over the bluffs, which are about four hundred feet high in 

 their greatest elevation. 



This chert is that which the Eskimo of the entire Alaskan arc- 

 tic region (before the coming of white men) used for tipping their 

 lance- and arrow-heads when ivory was not employed. They, aided 

 with a small piece of bone, were able to " flake " it off in slices that 

 were easily reduced to the desired forms. They still work a little 

 of it up every year, in a desultory or perfunctory manner, however, 

 more for amusement than anything else, since they have a profusion 

 of iron and steel now in their possession. The fashion in which they 

 chip it gives ample evidence of their full understanding of a flat con- 

 choidal fracture peculiar to flint, and of which they take advantage. 



To the northwest of Cape Thompson the coast runs out abruptly 

 as a low spit, projected into the Arctic Ocean for a distance of 

 twenty miles. This is Port Hope. The beach everywhere is prin- 

 cipally formed of dark basaltic gravel. To the north of a considerable 

 stream not far from this point, and on a low and diluvial shore, is a 

 large hamlet of Innuits, who have covered the turfy thatches on 

 their winter houses with heavy blocks of angular clink-atones picked 

 up from the sea-beach. The whole surface of the interior country 

 here is raised several hundred feet above tide-level, and is diversi- 

 fied with saddle-backed hills of gray and bronzed tints, separated by 

 wide valleys in which a rich green summer verdancy is character- 

 istic. Here and there conical eminences and perpendicular shelv- 

 ing cliffs arise from a general evenness of the whole landscape. 

 These cliffs seem to be composed of limestones, while their acclivi- 

 ties are of slate and shale. 



As we near Cape Lisburne a jutting range of bluffs, stratified in 

 bands of grayish-brown and black, receive the full wash of the sea, 

 and are called Cape Dyer ; but Cape Lisburne is the striking land- 

 mark, and a most important one for the navigator to recognize. It 

 is composed of two remarkable promontories : the southwestern 

 one rises abruptly from the surf, is covered with loose gray stones, 

 divested of the smallest traces of vegetation. The northeastern one 

 rises gradually, and, although but thinly clad with verdure, it forms 



