Sketch of the Geology of the Arctic Regions. 



Sea coast east of the McKenizie. 



At Parry's peninusula, still on the margin of the sea, commences 

 limestone. The beaches are covered with rolled pieces, and on the 

 precipitous banks it appears in weather worn columns, while in other 

 sections it spreads away into flat horizontal strata, and fragments of 

 chert, dolomite, and green stone, are scattered over its surface. Veg- 

 etation is very scanty here, and through large tracts, there is not even 

 the vestige of a lichen. 



Sea coast. Cape Lyon to the Coppermine River. 



The slaty clay occurs in thin bluish grey layers, intetsperse'd with 

 scales of mica. It rises into softly swelling hills, running under ridges 

 of trap rock, which traverse the lower country and rise to the height 

 of seven or eight hundred feet above the sea. On thfe coast, the 

 trap ridges form lofty precipices, — and in many places, the clay strata 

 are washed away and the greenstone columns overhang the beach. 

 Eastward, the line of coast becomes lower, fine grained flesh color- 

 ed quartzose sandstone occurs, and gothic arches of limestone in al- 

 most architectural proportions. Naked barren ridges of iron shot 

 greenstone, cross the country at point De Witt Clinton, and the up- 

 per soil consists of white magnesian limestone gravel, and bluish clay. 



From this district to the mouth of the Coppermine River, lime- 

 stone is the prevailing rock, accompanied by varieties of sandstone, 

 greenstone, trap rocks, and porphyry, with disseminated mirierals of 

 almost numberless species. 



Vegetation ceases before reaching this line of coast, which is be- 

 tween 69° and 70° N. A patch of moss, or a clump of dwarf wil- 

 lows in the crevices, or under the shelter of decaying drift wood, oc- 

 casionally surprises the eye of the explorer, but with these very rare 

 exceptions, no trace of verdure or herbage is seen. 



JI. From Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean by the Copper- 

 mine River. 



Primitive rocks occur east of the Slave River where it joins Slave 

 Lake : they consist chiefly of granite, containing flesh colored fel- 

 spar and quartz, with but little mica. Coarse granite with mica, in 

 large plates, forms the Reindeer Islands. The same formation con- 



