some of the masses of rock appear round-backed; and in certain
points of view, the crest of the ridge seems to consist of mammillary
peaks. On a nearer approach, the individual hills are found to be
composed of rounded eminences, having summits, generally, of an oblong
form, and consisting of smooth, naked rock. Small mural precipices are
frequent, and many detached blocks of stone lie beneath them. Between
the eminences, there are level spots destitute of vegetation, and
covered with small stones or gravel not much worn. A considerable
portion of the gravel is granite or quartz, the debris, perhaps, of the
rocks, of which the hills consist; it contains also some pieces of
slate, and not a few of quartzose sandstone, neither of which I observed
_in situ_. In the course of a walk of two miles over these hills, the
only rock I observed was granite, verging in a few places towards
gneiss, and generally whitish, with black mica. Sometimes the felspar is
brownish-red, and the rock not unfrequently contains disseminated
augite? The weathered surface of the stone was every where of a
brick-red colour. In many spots the rocks split into such thin slaty
looking tables that they have the appearance of being stratified. The
slaty masses are, generally, vertical; but in one hill they were
observed dipping 80 degrees to the south-east. The direction of the
tabular masses is mostly across the oblong summits of the hills. The
appearances of stratification were not observed to extend through a
whole hill, and seemed, in fact, to be confined to the more decomposable
granites; but the naked rocks are every where traversed by smooth
fissures. The blocks, which lie under the cliffs, have sometimes a
tabular form, but more generally come nearer to a cube or rhomboid, and
present one or two very even faces. Few veins were noticed. In the more
sheltered vallies, some clumps of white or black spruce trees occur; but
the hills are barren.

The point of land which lies between M'Tavish and M'Vicar Bays has low
shores; but five or six miles inland, an even-backed ridge rises
gradually to the height of three or four hundred feet, and abuts
obliquely against the primitive hills. I did not visit this ridge, and
the snow prevented me from seeing any flat beds of rocks, if such exist
on the shore. On one point, however, near the north end of Dease Bay,
many large angular blocks of whitish dolomite were piled up, and I have
little doubt of the rock exi