2 Sketch of the Geology of the Arctic Regions. 



III. Melville Island, Port Boiven, and the Coasts of Prince Re- 



genfs Inlet. 



IV. Islands and Countries bordering on Hudson's Bay. 

 V. Greenland. 



VI. Iceland. 



VII. The JYorth of Europe, with the Steppes of Russia. 

 VIII. JVotices of Siberia, Kamschatka, and the Kurile Islands. 



I. The Rocky Mountains, near tlieir northern termination, do not 

 form a continuous range, but separate into bluffs, and detached 

 masses, running in various directions, some parallel with each other, 

 and others diverging as they approach the Arctic Sea. A few barren 

 hills, rising in a deep morass, from three to twelve miles in breadth, 

 divide them from the frozen Ocean. 



The formation of the mountains is of primitive rocks, over which 

 a secondary covering, extending upwards, reposes upon their eastern 

 sides many hundred feet from their bases. The sea coasts, from 

 them, towards the McKenzie, are shallow, and skirted with islands, 

 sometimes margined with a gravelly beach, and at others widi high 

 banks of sand, or hmestone. Greenstone, sandstone, and limestone 

 form the pebbles on the beach. 



On the Sea Coast West of the McKenzie, Captain Franklin col- 

 lected the follo^ving specimens. Greywacke slate in columnar con- 

 cretions ; globular, dark blackish grey splintery limestone j worn 

 pebbles of quartz ; lydian stone ; splintery limestone ; fine grained 

 mountain green clay slate ; potstone, and rock crystal. Brown coal ; 

 clay iron stone ; pitch coal, and greenish grey hmestone, were seen 

 on the shores opposite the Rocky Mountains ; and westward, to- 

 wards Icy Cape, were found, greenish grey greywacke ; fine grain- 

 ed greywacke slate ; dark bluish greywacke slate, traversed by 

 veins of quartz, and iron pyrites. On Flaxman's Island, N. lat. 

 70° 11', W. long. 145° 50', were seen fine grained greenish clay 

 slate, " obviously of primitive rock, supposed to be brought down by 

 the rivulets and torrents from the Rocky Mountains." 



From the East end of Lake Superior, slightly converging towards 

 the Rocky Mountains, to the east side of Great Bear Lake, exists a 

 formation of primitive rocks, but little elevated above the general 

 level of the country. For seven hundred miles, beginning in lat. 

 50°, between these two ranges, the space is occupied principally by 

 horizontal strata of limestone, as far as 60° North. 



