LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
802 
and east coast, bespoke the existence of primary rocks, the hills 
rising to an avarage of 700 feet, and presenting acute summits, 
declining by sharp prolonged ridges. A table land would 
scarcely be to be expected, in a country where the summits of 
the hills are for the greater part of the year, exposed to the most 
intense frost, and where, in consequence, they must assume 
that acute and jagged form, which generally characterise 
the hills of the Arctic Regions. The granite possesses the 
character of that substance, as it is found forming mountain 
masses, and therefore it is not improbable that this rock forms a 
portion at least of the country. 
The observations of Mr. Thoms and Mr. McJDiarmid went to 
show that the cliffs appeared, wherever they were exposed, to 
present an appearance of stratification. The specimen they pro¬ 
duced seemed almost entirely limited to gneiss, a circumstance 
to be expected from the stratified appearance already mentioned. 
It is probable that some members of the trap family exist, 
although it is impossible to determine under what form, as a 
solitary specimen only was found, being a very compact and 
fine grained greenstone, of a somewhat porphyritic character. 
On the whole the researches of the respective officers did not 
throw any great light on the geological nature of the country, 
and the specimens of the granite, which we have in our possess¬ 
ion, do not differ much excepting in the colour, from the granite 
found in the vicinity of Aberdeen, the polar granite being of an 
orange colour, that of Scotland of a dusky white. 
Mr. Thoms and Mr. Mc’Diarmid having extended their excur¬ 
sion too far, were benighted on their way home, and it was not 
without some difficulty that they reached the vessel; nor would 
this have been so easily accomplished had not some blue lights 
been fired off at intervals, and guns fired every five minutes from 
the ship, as a guide to the travellers to direct them on their way. 
They were two hours and fifty minutes rambling they knew 
not whither, and but for the report of the guns, which in that 
climate is heard at a great distance, it is not improbable but 
that they would have had to pass the night under the lee of a 
