200 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



the rocks themselves and their geographical extent. The information 

 afforded by the materials of the drift and that derived from the other 

 sources I have alluded to, all indicate that these rocks likewise occupy 

 a very large area of country extending inland from this part of the 

 coast. This unexploi-ed region would, no doubt, prove a highly 

 interesting field for i-esearch both to the geologist and the miner. 



In my various reports on Hudson's Bay and Straits, I have had 

 occasion to refer to the indications everywhere to be* met with, of the 

 great changes which have taken place in the relative levels of the sea 

 and land in comparatively recent geological times. Similar phenom- 

 ena have been observed in Baffin Land and on the northern shores of 

 the American continent, as well as on all the islands north of the 

 mainland, by the officers of the numerous , Franklin search expedi- 

 tions, and other explorers. This change in the relative levels of the 

 land and water ;^has not, therefore, been limited to "an area of up- 

 heaval," but has been general in all these northern regions of the 

 earth. 



The evidence of the rapid I'ise of the land, or perhaps more correctly 

 speaking, of the recession of the sea, is strikingly manifested on 

 Marble Island. The smooth pebbles and rounded stones of the 

 ancient beaches, being snowy white, the horizontal lines of the latter 

 are rendered conspicuous in the naked landscapes by their contrast 

 with the yellowish-grey or brown color of the vegetable matter which 

 occupies the intervals between them. They occur at numerous dif- 

 ferent levels, up to 200 or 300 feet, and some at still greater elevations. 



The solid rocks of Marble Island are pretty thoroughly glaciated 

 and the strife are very distinct. At the north-west point of the 

 island their course is S. 25° E. true, and on Deadman's Island it is 

 S. 15° E. true. It may be mentioned in connection with this sub- 

 ject that at Fort Churchill the course of the glacial strife is S.S. W., and 

 at the first solid rock seen in ascending the Hayes River it is S.S.E., 

 with an older set at the same place, running nearly east and west. 

 To the west and south of James' Bay the general course is south-west- 

 ward ; along the southern part of the East-main coast, westward, and 

 towai'd the northern part of this coast, northward ; while in Hudson's 

 Straits it is eastward. From these facts it might be inferred 

 that during the glacial period, the ice which formed in the basin 

 of Hudson's Bay, or flowed into it from the high lands to the north- 

 west and those of the Labradoi peninsula to the east, found outlets 



