l68 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 



species, whose only habitat then known was the summit 

 of Ml. Washington. It has since been observed in the 

 Rocky Mountains. Here also we found the beach-pea 

 {Lathyrus maritimus) just flowering. 



July 1 8. We left Tub Island at 5 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, and crossing the mouth of Hamilton Inlet were 

 obliged to put into Sloop Harbor, twenty-five miles dis- 

 tant. The southwest wind freshened after dinner and 

 blew off shore in the evening, but we were preventeci 

 from reaching Cape Webuc or Harrison by the ice, some 

 of which floated about our vessel while at anchor. It 

 was, however, waning ; large cakes breaking into pieces 

 with a report like a volley of firearms. 



The northern shore of Groswater Bay — Hamilton or 

 Ivuctoke Inlet, as it is variously called by the French, 

 English, and Eskimo inhabitants — is in places very high 

 and rugged, owing to the presence of trap dykes and an- 

 cient volcanic overflows capping the hills of gneiss. 

 Huge dykes of the black rock ran in ruffled crests over 

 the hills of pale, gneiss-like, huge black walls. " Black 

 and White" is a notable island, conico-pyramidal in form, 

 the western end of black trap rock, the eastern end com- 

 posed of the pale gneiss common on this part of the 

 coast. There is a similar but less conspicuous and lower 

 island to the eastward. One dyke in particular, seen just 

 before entering Sloop Harbor, was of basaltic columns 

 in horizontal, quite regular, prisms. The highest hills ap- 

 peared to be about seven or eight hundred feet in height, 

 though this may be too high an estimate ; * but owing 

 to the great outbursts of black basalt capping the light 



* Cape Harrison is estimated on the chart to be 1,065 fset high. 



