BEu.] Hudson's strait. Odd 



similar to a loose mass which I had noted the previous year not far from 

 the station. This is an additional fact indicating an eastward move- 

 ment of the ancient glaciers. 



On the main north shore of the straits, just west of the channel Stratification 

 between it and Big Island, the stratification of the gneiss is very con- 

 spicuous. The strike is pai'allol to the above, and the dip is northward 

 for a considerable distance. While drifting up and down with the ice 

 near to the coast in these parts, the peculiarities of the gneiss, and of 

 veins cutting it, could be observed, but there is no chart of the shore 

 or other means of identifying the localities. ', 



Many of the pans of field-ice off Big Island had gravel strewn upon 

 them. This was found to consist of gneiss with a certain proportion of 

 darkly-colored schists. But on ice-pans further up the coast, or to the 

 north-westward, I found fragments of shaly marl and of grey limestone Limestone 

 with fossils, among which Receplacidites Oweni was easily distinguished, [ccfi^n"!*"* 

 Shells and bryozons, belonging to moderately d^p-water species, were 

 found on the same pans. The limestone fragments, just mentioned, 

 would point to the occurrence of Silurian rocks on or near the great 

 bays in the western part of the north-shore of the Straits, where the 

 land is said to be low. Dr. Franz Boas of Berlin has recorded the 

 existence of these rocks in the interior of Baffin Land, only about two^^^l^'^^j,"^ 

 degrees of latitude north of this region. He says:* "Through the Hudson's Strait 

 occurrence of the Silurian rocks on the Xettilling (Lake) the discovery 

 of the same formation at the upper end of Frobisher Bay increases 

 in value. We must now suppose that the Silurian limestones, which 

 appear at Prince Bupert's Inlet, extend from there to Frobisher Bay, 

 and overlie the granites and gneisses of Baffin's Bay and Davis' Strait. 

 We will not be far astray if we connect this extensive Silurian district 

 with the limestones which occur to the south of Igluling, and which 

 . form the fiat eastern half of Melville Peninsula. Southward from Limestone 

 Nettilling, these rocks rise into low hill-ranges, which are indicated on peninsula.* 

 the sketch by Padloaping." 



In a letter to me, referring to the geology of Baffin Land, Dr. Boas 

 says: "The most interesting geological problem of the country is a 

 study of ihe line of division between the Silurian plains and the eastern 

 highlands. I suppose that Silurian rocks will be found, either in the 

 i-emotest corner of White Bear Sound, or close to it. Probably the strata white Bear 

 will be found lying horizontally, and then soundings in the Lakes 

 Amakdjuak and Nettilling, will be of great importance. It must be 

 important for the problems of glaciation to survey the inner rim of the 



♦ Page 50 of Dr. A. Petermann's Mitteilungen aus Justus Perthes Geographischer Anstalt, 

 Nr. 80. Ootha, November, 188.5. 



