180 
GEOLOGY. 
similar spit on each side of the inlet. The shores of Port Clarence are mostly low, 
except on the north, and on the east side, near Cape Riley ; the north, south, and east 
boundaries of Grantley Harbour are for the most part rocky and steep. 
The long low spit which terminates in Point Spencer, separating the outer harbour 
from the sea, is continuous with the land to the southward, and leaves an entrance of 
three miles wide, between its north point and the base of the mountainous shore on the 
north side of the bay. The outer part of this spit is low, level, and interspersed with 
fresh-water lakes, said to rise and fall with the tide, and separated from the sea by a 
higher ridge. The inner part of the spit is formed of about six broad ridges, parallel 
to each other, and to the inner beach that looks to the sound. The whole spit is scantily 
covered with a short vegetation, and on the highest part of the ridges large quantities of 
drift-wood repose in various stages of decay ; the decay of the wood is greater in pro- 
portion as the ridge on which it lies is farther removed from the inner beach, so that the 
trees upon the ridges near the middle of the spit are crumbling into dust. Such is the 
appearance of the spit for about a mile only from its point. 
From the beach on the northern side of the outer harbour, to the bottom of the 
hills, a considerable flat, covered in great measure with alluvial soil, contains large lakes 
and lagoons. Smaller lakes are also formed on the southern shore, in the low land near 
the base of the spit just described. 
The rocky cliff” of Cape Riley, on the east shore of Port Clarence, is about two miles 
in extent, and gradually, but irregularly terminates in a low beach on each side. It is 
composed of a friable mica slate and fine talc slate, with intersecting veins of calcareous 
spar of a pearly lustre, mixed with grey quartz. The general line of dip is obscure, 
from the front being much covered with falling fragments, but appears to be inclined to 
the north-east. The shore of the inner harbour, where exposed in cliffs near the middle 
of the south side, is a similar mica slate, dipping more distinctly to the east, and con- 
tains alum slate. The shore on the north side also presents cliffs of similar formation 
and dip; the mica slate contains crystals of a blackish colour, and masses of chlorite 
rock. The bottom of the harbour, and the steep ascent from the banks of the river, for 
more than two miles up (as far as we saw), appeared on a near view to be a continua- 
tion of the same slaty formation. 
The mountain of Cape Prince of Wales is remarkable for a covering of loose stones, 
and a mural ridge of bare rock, broken into irregular gaps and points. This wall com- 
mences at the base of the mountain on the north-east side, ascends the brow, and 
reappears in separate and less distinct ridges on the south and south-west side. Parts 
of it here stand up in tall and tapering fragments, which at a distance may be mistaken 
for close- branched trees, or stupendous statues. 
From Cape Prince of Wales to Kotzebue’s Sound the whole shore is low, and the 
depth of water so little as not to allow vessels to approach near it. A spit of low land, 
and most probably of recent formation, runs into the sea from Cape Prince of Wales in 
a northern direction. — C. 
FINIS. 
