AO, LTE J OOKNALE, OR AGTOEO GVA 
talline walls on either side, though at its mouth there rise pictur- 
esque cliffs of sandstone. The Redcliff Peninsula, a triangular 
area, about fifteen miles on a side, lying between McCormick and. 
Bowdoin Bays (see accompanying map), clearly has a nucleus 
of crystalline rock. On the south face, the clastic series forms 
the entire coast line. Each of the glacial tongues, however, that 
descends from the peninsular ice cap brings crystalline bowlders. 
As the ice cap is entirely indigenous to the peninsula, and the 
glacial movement is outwards in all directions, none of the crys- 
talline bowlders can be derived from any outside source. Besides, 
the nucleus is actually exposed on the northwestern side of Bow- 
doin Bay. East of Bowdoin Bay the clastic series occupies a 
narrow tract along the Gulf, while farther back the country is 
made up of the crystalline series, so far as could be seen directly, 
or inferred from the drift. On the south side of the Gulf, a part 
of the coast is formed by crystalline rocks, and a part by the 
clastic series. At the head of the Gulf, the islands, so far as 
seen, and the promontories on the south side, are composed of 
the crystalline series, but the Smithson Mountains (which 
were, however, only observed at a distance by a field glass) 
appeared to be formed of pinkish gray sandstone. As they lie 
in the line of the strike of that formation, it seems not improba- 
ble that the old clastic basin extended farther into the mainland 
than the present basin. 
The foregoing observations, taken together, appear to justify 
the inference that the ancient gulf in which the clastic series was 
laid down was somewhat more extensive, but not greatly more 
extensive, than the present one, and that it had approximately 
the same form, though departing from it in some particulars. It 
appears also a natural inference that the old basin was the parent 
of the new one in the sense of having determined its location 
and measurably its dimensions. It is doubtless an instance of an 
ancient feature perpetuating itself through later geological ages. 
General topography of the region—The stratigraphy of the 
district has already led us to a recognition of its greatest topo- 
graphic feature, the basin itself. A study of its profiles quickly 
