98 Part II. Chapter ı. 
a third group drain north-ward into Ungava Bay and the fourth drainage area 
is represented by the basin of the Hamilton River 600 miles (965 km) long 
which debouches into the Atlantic Ocean. The largest lake of Labrador is 
Mistissini, very deep and 100 miles (161 km) long. — Geologically Labrador 
is an immense area of Archaean rocks. Ninetenths of the peninsula consists 
of Laurentian gneisses with instrusions of granite, basalt and syenite. 
Newfoundland, southeast from Labrador, is an island one third larger 
than Ireland. The western coast of the island is comparatively straight, but the 
southern and eastern coasts are profoundly indented with deep fjords, providing 
safe harbors and numerous headlands, or promontories jut out into the ocean, 
The general character of the coast is very rugged and bold. A rampart of 
cliffs, 200 to 400 feet ((ı—ı22 m) high, resists the storms of the North Atlantic. 
The west coast, a few miles inland, is characterized by the presence of the 
Long Range Mountains, rising in places 2000 feet (608 m), and running far into 
the Petit Nord peninsula. The south coast of Newfoundland is studded with 
islands and islets. The most important rivers are the Humber, emptying into 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Exploits River, emptying into Notre Dame Bay, and 
Gander River, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Newfoundland geologically 
may be divided into an area of Huronian rocks occupying the south-east 
corner and the peninsula of Avalon, and an area of predominant Laurentian 
rocks found over the remaining two-thirds of the island. The Long Range 
mountains are entirely Laurentian. While the core of the island is Archaean, 
there are large areas of later formations, such as Carboniferous, Cambro-Silurian, 
Upper Silurian, and upon these are the agricultural and heavily timbered lands. 
A large part of the interior remains unexplored and no white man, since 
Cormack in ı822, is reported to have crossed the main island in its greatest 
extension on foot. 
The Alaska coast of Bering Sea is mainly low and marshy, rising Very 
gently inland, and consisting almost entirely of tundra. The Yukon, the great 
river-of Alaska and one of the great rivers of the earth, has a delta which 
covers thousands of square miles and across which the forking ends of the 
river run. Where the Alaskan coast faces the Pacific, it is bold and rugged; 
where it faces Bering Sea, it is low and tundra-clothed. North of the Yukon 
most of the land is permanently frozen to a great depth, some-times not even 
thawing in July. The coast of south-eastern Alaska is a broken one, and is 
bordered by many large and small islands, forming an archipelago. The 
channels separating these islands are deep and tortuous and from them the 
shore rises precipitously. Deep fjords cut the coast-line and extend far inland. 
A chain of islands stretches westward to longitude 187° known as the Aleutian 
islands. Most of them are volcanic and are simply the tops of submarine 
‚mountains. 
Ihe Pacific Range. The Cordilleran system of mountains, which is 
broad in the United States, narrows northward, as it stretches through British 
Columbia, and enters Alaska very much contracted in breadth. Following the 
