1G J GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP CANADA. 



Shoals and Hannah Bay is so shallow that, with the exception of the river chan- 



nels, it is almost completely dry at low water, and when a canoe is left 

 by the tide, the sensation experienced by its crew is anything but 

 pleasant, as they have to debark and stand in the mud, often beyond 

 sight of the low fringe of bushes on the high water line, awaiting the- 

 return of the water. Bupert Bay is not quite so shallow as Hannah Bay, 

 and has a channel up its centre to the moufch of the Notaway Biver. 

 th^coast^rf Along the east side of the bay the character of the coast changes, 

 east side of the the low unbroken, muddy shores being replaced by higher rocky and 

 sandy banks, deeply indented with small bays and fringed with in- 

 numerable rocky, shingle and sand islands as described by Dr. Bell 

 (Beport of Brogress lSIY-S.) The waters are much deeper and, 

 although not free from danger on account of many hidden shoals, 

 can be easily- navigated in small craft, the islands and bays afford- 

 ing abundance of good shelter. The country inland from the 

 bay varies similarly to the coast line. To the west and south 

 it is almost flat, with its soil overlying nearly horizontal beds of 

 Silurian and Silurian and Devonian limestones for about one hundred and fifty 

 Hmestones. miles inland to the Archtean country, so that the general level rises 

 slowly and evenly towards the interior. The soil along the rivers 

 appears to be good, and as the climate to the southward is probably 

 Good soil. favorable for the growth of cereals and root crops, nothing prevents 

 future settlement in this region after the filling up of the north-west, 

 except that without an extensive system of drainage, the lands remote 

 from the rivers will be found too wet for successful farming, as it is 

 said by the Indians, that with the exception of lands close to the rivers 

 the greater part of the country for a long distance inland from the bay 

 is a mossy swamp. 



Inland from the east coast the country is of a different character. 

 The interior of this part is a rough table-land having an elevation of 

 about seven hundred feet above sea level near its edge, and slowly 

 rising inland to over two thousand feet at its highest. 

 Character and The edge of this table land leaves the coast to the north of Cape 

 the V fnte?io / Jones, and runs in a S.S.E. direction, so that to the southward there is 

 tahie-iand. an j n t erva i varying from ten to thirty miles between it and the coast. 

 In this portion the general level is not much over one hundred feet 

 above the sea, and the soil is of Bost-Bliocene clays and sands, with 

 alluvium, affording good land for cultivation but as the climate is 

 colder than on the west side, it is doubtful if it would allow the suc- 

 cessful growth of any but the hardiest cereals, good crops of potatoes, 

 however, and other roots could be and are grown as far north as the 

 mouth of Big Biver. The land is rolling and broken by low rocky 



