] GEOLOGY OF WEST COAST. 19 P D 



an examination of liarble Island in 1884. The general character of -^-arbie island, 

 the land about Chesterfield Inlet could bo plainly seen from the ship 

 when we were in that vicinity in the latter year. I have, however? 

 received from friends who have ti-avelled in these parts many particu- 

 lars in reference to this coast. Professor James Tennant, of London* Prof. Tennant. 

 has described some rock-specimens from the north-west side of Hudson's 

 Bay, and also from Repulse Ba^-, fui-ther north. Fi-om these various 

 sources of information some light is thrown on the geology of the coast. 



Between Seal River and Eskimo Point, a distance of about 140 statute Coa.xt from 



, J iSeal River to 



miles, the shore-line appears to be uniform with a low country behind Eskimo Point, 

 it, broken only by an occasional hummock, probably of di'ift. The 

 shingle of the beach is said to consist largely of limestone, aud it is 

 not improbable that behind this section of the coast, there is a consid- 

 erable area of the flat-lying limestones, similar to those along the lower limestone, 

 parts of the Churchill and Nelson Rivers. If this part of the coast 

 were occupied by crystalline rocks, we should probably have a hilly 

 country with a broken coast-line, like that further north, whereas the 

 low appearance of the land and the even trend of the shore are anala- 

 gous to the conditions which prevail where the Silurian rocks are met 

 with further south on the Bay. 



From Eskimo Point to the entrance of ChesterfieUl Inlet, the distance varieties 

 is about 180 statute miles, in a straight lino. The rock-specimens from °^ '^'*^- 

 this section embrace fine-grained hornblende-schists, greenstones, 

 quaitz and epidote rock, light grey, coarse-grained sandstone, altered 

 to quartzite, and holding frag.-nents of indurated red shale, compact 

 banded white quartz-rock, with crystals of iron pyrites in some of the 

 layers, quartzite like that of Marble Island, grey felsites, crystalline * ^ 



hornblende-rock, diorite consisting of compact white felspar with long 

 crystals of dark hornblende, banded grey hornblende and quartz-rock, 

 with some layers approaching chert, mica-schists of different kindi-» Veinstones- 

 mixed hornblende- and mica-schist, chocolate-colored porphyiy with 

 fllesh-colored crystals of felspar and grains of clear quartz, granulite, 

 red jasper with dull fracture, hard, brownish-red sandstone, grey 

 felsitic quartzite with lenticular patches of dark mica-schist, chloritic 

 schist, about fifty pounds of granular iron pyrites, several hundreds iron pyrites.^ 

 of cubes of iron pyrites, the largest measuring about one inch in 

 diameter, taken from a dark, glossy schist, quartz veinstone with 

 large scales of light-colored mica, with garnets, calcspai- veinstone 

 with embedded cj-ystals of quartz and having grey steatitic rock 

 adhering to it, also a veinstone of quartz, containing silky radiating 

 aggregates of hornblende and a few specks of calcspar and iron 

 pyrites; some soft greenish schist is attachetl to this specimen. 

 There are eleven specimens of the granular iron pyrites, which 



