490 Mr. Steinhauer's Geology of the Coast of Labrador 



the foot. These fragments, mouldering into sand, afford in some 

 places support to a few species of pines, and the annual decompo- 

 sition of their leaves stains this earth to the depth of a few inches 

 with a blackish liue. In other spots where the thawing snow oc- 

 casions an accumulation of water, sphagna and other mosses form 

 a species of turf, and conceal the barrenness of the land ; but 

 every where the plucking up a tuft of vegetation, or removing the 

 withered leaves, discovers either the bare rock or a bright silicious 

 sand. In several parts of the country the rocks are intersected by 

 chasms running generally in a right line to a considerable distance, 

 as if intended to be the receptacles of future veins ; the floor, as I 

 am informed, is composed of a diiferent species of stone from the 

 sides, and generally of a lighter colour ; but I could not, from the 

 description, ascertain whether it was calcareous or not. These clefts 

 when covered with snow in the winter, sometimes prove dangerous 

 pitfalls to the unwary wanderer, who does not know how to avoid 

 them by the line of bushes (vaccinia, ledum, l^c.J which fringe 

 their margin. Indeed the narrow passages which divide the coast 

 into numberless islands, almost seem to be similar chasms occupied 

 by the sea, few, if any, of these islands being alluvial, but high 

 barren rocks, appearing from the sea like continuous land. 



The highest mountains seem to extend along the eastern coast j 

 the names and situations of the principal, known to the mission- 

 aries, are 



The Nachwak chain, about lat. 59% 



The insulated mountain, Tupperlik, (the tent) lat. 58° 15'. 



The Kaumayok chain terminating in the high island of Cape 

 Mug ford or Grimmington, lat. 58°. 



The high land of Kiglapyed, in lat 57°. 



The Mealy mountains laid down on Lane's survey of the coast of 



