354 SUTHERLAND, DAVIs' STRAIT AND BAFFIN's BAY. 



consist of similar rock. From Cape Parry (lat 77° 5') north- 

 eastwardly to Bardin Bay (lat. 77° 20'), in the south shore of 

 Whale Sound, the strata incline a little to the S.W., and in many 

 places they are somewhat curved. Still farther to the north-east 

 they have a general dip of 30° to S.W., and they are intersected 

 by irregular dark-coloured dikes of igneous rocks. One of these 

 dikes rises in the form of a rough peak above the outline of the 

 strata. In the entrance of Bardin Bay, the ship, drawing ten to 

 twelve feet of water, struck upon a rock, which from the depth of 

 the water (fifty to sixty fathoms) within a couple of hundred yards, 

 may be a second protrusion of the same dike above the stratified 

 roc]?:s. Specimens of quartzose grit were obtained from the low 

 point on the north-east side of Bardin Bay, and were taken from 

 strata inclining W.S.W. at a general angle of 15°, but a little curved. 

 In them we recognise the same sandstone as that of North Omenak, 

 about sixty miles to the southward. A specimen of syenitic por- 

 phyry was taken from the shoulder of the hill in the vicinity of the 

 dike above-mentioned. In other parts of Whale Sound (in North- 

 umberland, Herbert, and Milne Islands) the strata are perfectly 

 horizontal ; and at Cape Saumarez, on the same coast, but thirty 

 miles further north, the same strata can be traced from one cliff 

 to another in conformable and horizontal lines over many miles. 

 At Cape Alexander, the eastern boundary of the entrance of Sir- 

 Thomas- Smith's Sound, in lat. 78° 15', we again find the strata 

 somewhat curved; but about seven miles farther north (a few miles 

 south of Cape Hatherton), they are so regularly and horizontally 

 piled one on another, that from their peculiar appearance they 

 have received the name of the Crystal-Palace ClilFs. A small 

 island, lying in front of a glacier two miles southward of Cape 

 Alexander, appears to be composed of a dark rough-grained sand- 

 stone, similar to that found in Whale Sound. The strata are 

 somewhat indistinct from the large disintegrated fragments that 

 occupy the surface ; they appear, however, to incline to the west- 

 ward at an angle of ten or fifteen degrees. 



fVest Coast of Baffin's Bay. Smith's Sound. — The west shore 

 of Smith's Sound, from Victoria Head, beyond the 79th degree 

 of latitude, to Cape Isabella near the 78th, as well as the coast 

 leading southwardly to Jones' Sound, is so inapproachable from the 

 drifting pack-ice in the season for navigation, that I fear we shall 

 not soon have specimens of the rocks by which the character of so 

 large a portion of the coast can be determined ; and it is, moreover, 

 everywhere so covered by the glacier, that the outlines of mere 

 protrusions of the land, taken at a distance of ten to twenty miles, 

 scarcely afibrd the materials for correct results. From its greater 

 height in many parts than the adjacent, opposite shore, and also 

 from its rugged, in some cases even pinnacled, contour, thus 

 resembling the coast at Cape Farewell, it probably consists for the 

 most part of crystalline rocks. 



Jones' Sound, and North Devon. — Similar appearances obtain 

 (with some local exceptions) along the north and south shoi'e of 

 Jones' Sound, the Cobourg and" neighbouring islands, and the 

 eastern coast of North Devon. 



