DALY: GEOLOGY OF THE NORTHEAST COAST OF LABRADOR. 209 
intervals, we were compelled to drop anchor and wait for the short-lived 
favorable winds on which our progress against the south-flowing current. 
depended. The longest run made between the straits and Hebron, a 
distance of eight hundred miles, was only fifty-three miles in length. 
Twenty-two halts of greater or less duration were made on this part 
of the journey. Nachvak Bay, eleven hundred miles from St. John’s, 
and the objective point of the expedition, was not reached until August 
21st. Thus but a small portion of the summer remained for the explo- 
ration of the high mountains in the north. At the end of two weeks we 
were forced to weigh anchor and begin our homeward journey. 
Disappointing as our rate of progress was in this one respect, there 
yet remained the advantage that, with so many opportunities to land in 
southern Labrador, we were able to sample, with fair continuity, the geol- 
ogy of a coast-line which is in every part in need of investigation. In fact, 
some of the most interesting problems of the summer would have been 
necessarily left untouched, if our early ambition to make a rapid north- 
ward run had been satisfied. The return to St. John’s was accomplished 
in four weeks, during which time, several gaps in the required series of 
observations were filled up. We dropped anchor for the last time in the 
early morning of Oct. 3d, having been out a few hours less than a hun- 
dred days. In that period, we had been thirty-nine days at anchor against 
our will, but there was, at each detention, always the consolation of an 
opportunity to get a view, however hurried, of a region full of novelty 
and at times no less interesting than the goal of our endeavor, the 
Torngats of the north. At the same time, it is clear that nothing 
more than a reconnaissance could be made at any of the anchorages. 
Observations on Topography and Bed-rock Geology. 
The general form and composition of the old-mountain plateau of 
Labrador have already been admirably treated by Packard,’ Bell, and 
Low, and by the writer of the article “ Labrador” in the Encyclopedia 
Britannica. These and earlier writers agree that the northeastern coast 
of the peninsula marks the edge of the great Archean shield of North 
America; and, further, that, if exception be made of the “Domino 
quartzite,” the Ramah slates, and certain occurrences of sedimentary 
rocks in Nachvak Bay, the bed-rock of the coastal belt is throughout 
1 A bibliography relating to works on Labrador is published in “‘ The Labrador 
Coast” by A. S. Packard, Jr. New York and London, 1891. 
