ck mud, in which there were inclined beds
of lignite. [Sidenote: 188] Specimens of this lignite have the same
appearance with the fibrous wood-coal occurring in the formation at the
mouth of Bear Lake River, and, like it, contain resin. [Sidenotes: 189,
190] Imbedded in the same bank, there were large masses of a dark-brown
calc-tuff, full of cavities containing some greenish earthy substance.
Some boulders of lydian stone strew the beach. The cliffs of
Nicholson's Island also consisted of sand and mud, which, at the time
of our visit, (July 16th,) had thawed to the depth of three feet. This
island rises four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and is
covered with a thin sward of grasses and bents.

SEA-COAST.--BITUMINOUS ALUM SHALE.

The main land to the east of Nicholson's Island, as far as Cape
Bathurst, presents gently swelling hills, which attain the height of two
hundred feet at the distance of two miles from the beach, and the ground
is covered with a sward of moss and grasses. At Point Sir Peregrine
Maitland there are cliffs forty-feet high of sand and slaty clay, and
the ravines are lined with fragments of whitish compact limestone,
exactly resembling that which occurs in Lakes Huron and Winipeg, and
which was afterwards seen forming the promontory of Cape Parry, bearing
E.N.E. from this place. The beach, on the south side of Harrowby Bay,
not far from Point Maitland, was thickly strewed with fragments of dark
red and of white sandstone, together with some blocks of the
above-mentioned limestone, and a few boulders of sienite.

From Cape Bathurst the coast line has a S.E. direction, and is formed by
precipitous cliffs, which gradually rise in height from thirty feet to
six hundred. The beds composing these cliffs appear to be analogous to
those of the alum-shale banks at Whitby, and similar to those which
skirt the Scented-grass Hill and Great Bear Mountain, in Great Bear
Lake. The Scented-grass Hill is distant from Cape Bathurst about three
hundred miles, on a S.E. bearing, which corresponds, within a point,
with the direction of the principal mountain chains in the country.
[Sidenote: 191] There is evidently a striking similarity in the form of
the ground plan of these two promontories. At the extremity of Cape
Bathurst the cliffs consist of slaty-clay, which, when dry, has a light
bluish-gray colour, a slightly greasy feel, and falls down in flakes.
The rain-water had penetrated the cliff to the dep