12 T) I) 



Hudson's straw and bav. 



the countrj'- 



muses, separating bays or connecting islands with each other or with 

 the main land. Tonds and small lakes, of a mile or t^vo in length, are 

 numerous between the ranges of hills, or small mountains in the rear. 

 The clay and sand in the valleys between these ridges, up to an eleva- 

 tion of about 200 feet above the sea, are full of marine shells, of which 

 the genera Tellina, Saxicara, Cardium, Pecten, Mya, Mi/tihis and Astaric 

 are the most common. Viewed from a distance, these hills and moun- 

 A earance of ^^^^"^ l>^'^'<^ ^ naked appearance, but in wal king over the country itself, the 

 grasses and sedges, and a variety of Arctic plants which grow around 

 the ponds and lakes, and in sheltered places among the hills, give the 

 landscape a pleasantly green ai)pearance in many places. No shrubs a? & 

 to be seen except the creeping willows, but the Eskimo make mats for 

 the floors of their summer tents by fastening together, in regular order, 

 twigs of dwarf birch, (Betula glandulosa, Michx,)about three feet long, 

 which we understood they obtained in the interior. The natives on this 

 part of the coast live by hunting the reindeer among the hills, and the 

 white whale, polar bear, walrus and seals on the coat. At certain 

 seasons they also procure a good supply of waterfowl and brook trout. 



Close to the shore, behind an island, and about a mile south of the 

 old Eskimo camps, above referred to, a very conspicuous vein is exposed 

 along the face of a bluff of gneiss. It is about thirtj' feet wide in one 

 part, and consists of white quartz next the walls, with coarsely crystal- 

 line red felspar in the centre. A few plates of darkly-coloured, uneven 

 mica were also observed. 



The general outline of the land on this part of the coast, as seen from 

 a distance out at sea to the westward, slopes gradually up to the west- 

 ward, until the brink of the great precipices of Cape Wolstenholme 

 are reached. The elevated plateau above the precipices has a tolerably 

 even appearance, as if it had been smoothly and uniformy glaciated. 

 The high and almost perpendicular precipices of Capo Wolstenholme 

 and the east end of the Inner Digges Island, which faces each other, 

 present a singular contrast to the planed surface of the Outer Digges,, 

 and the apparently glaciated plateau of the mainland above the cape. 

 It is possible that part of the ancient glacier, in passing out of the bed 

 of Hudson's Bay, became jammed against the inside of the high angular 

 barrier formed by the Digges Islands, on the one hand and the mainland 

 on the other. The narrow channel which separates the Inner Digges 

 from Cape Wolstenholme must be very deep, if we may judge from the 

 quantity of water which tlows through it with every tide, producing a. 

 strong cuiTcnt in the sea to the south of the Digges Islands. 



Dui'ing our short visit to the harbour of Churchill a strong gale of 

 wind with rain prevailed, so that no ft-esh geological work could be 

 attempted beyond the limits which had been explored in this vicinity 



Large <|uartz 

 and felspar 

 vein. 



Elerated 

 plateau. 



