OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



311 



At two o'clock on the morning of .the 18th, the weather being extremely ,82 ^- 

 fine and clear, we rose with the sun ; and after depositing our spare stores 

 within a heap of stones, left the isthmus, and directed our course over the Suru l£ 

 hills to the westward, which consist partly of greyish gneiss and partly of red 

 granite, some of them rising at least a thousand or twelve hundred feet 

 above the level of the sea. These being in some places extremely steep, 

 with numberless loose fragments lying about, which only required the foot 

 to be set upon them to give them motion down the precipice, we were for 

 some time obliged to proceed with much caution. At half-past five, how- 

 ever, we had arrived at a peninsula which promised to prove of high 

 interest, for it appeared to lead to the very spot where, from the set of the 

 tide and the trending of the coast, the strait was most likely to be found ; 

 and it presented at the same time a geological character differing from any 

 we had before met with. The appearance of the southern or inner part of 

 this peninsula is singular, being that of three or more nearly horizontal and 

 equidistant ranges or strata, resembling at a distance so many tiers or galle- 

 ries of a high and commanding fortification, which seemed to defy approach. 

 On reaching this place, where two long and deep ponds of fresh water serve 

 to contract still more the narrow isthmus by which it is divided from the 

 other land ; we found the rocks composed of a brownish-red sandstone in 

 numerous alternate strata of darker and lighter shades, though three or four 

 only of these were conspicuous at a distance. 



We now turned nearly due north, the character of the rocks continuing 

 much the same, except that some narrow veins of a compact white sandstone 

 appeared here and there traversing the other. Some of this, as well as of the 

 red kind, occurred now and then in a pulverized state ; the former on first 

 taking it up, exactly resembled white sugar when moistened by water, but 

 being subsequently dried proved remarkably minute and fine. After cross- 

 ing a deep hollow, nearly intersecting the peninsula from east to west, we 

 observed the rocks to consist of a beautiful variety of the reddish sand- 

 stone, variegated with serpentine and nearly concentric delineations of a 

 darker red, and having numerous oval hwU of various sizes, like those of 

 wood, giving the smoothly rounded surface of the bare rock in many 

 places more the appearance of handsomely polished beef-wood than of 

 stone. After passing over a mile and a half of this, we arrived at about 

 seven A.M. at the ultimate object of our journey, the extreme northern 

 point of the peninsula overlooking the narrowest part of the desired strait 



