Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/192

166 three thousand five hundred or four thousand feet above the sea; for the mountains, whose height does not exceed three thousand, are, during the summer, frequently free from any, excepting in holes, where a large quantity is accumulated by drifting, and protected from the sun. The strait here is quite free from islands, and it is a remarkable fact, that, where the greenstone formation terminates, there the islands cease to appear.

The slate formation continues as far as Freshwater Bay, where the stratified rocks leave the coast and extend backwards in a north-west direction. The soil then becomes apparently a mixture of decomposed slate and clay; the slate gradually disappearing on approaching to Cape Negro, where the rock partakes of the character of the east coast. Here again we observe, along with the change of geological character, the reappearance of islands, the soil of which is clayey, but with masses of granite, hornblende rock and clay slate protruding in many places through the superficial soil, which, although it yields a poor grass, is entirely destitute of trees.

In that portion of the Strait to the eastward of Cape Negro the hills are remarkable for the regularity and parallelism of their direction, and their general resemblance to each other. On the north shore, near Cape Gregory, a range of hills commences suddenly, with rather a precipitous ascent, and extends for forty miles to the north-east, where it terminates in detached rocky hills. The south-western end of the range is a ridge of flat-topped land covered with soil, but with here and there a protruding mass of primitive rock; one of these appeared to be of sienite or granite. The north-eastern end of this range is perhaps more bare of soil, and, therefore, exposes the rock, which shows itself in detached hills. Precisely similar in appearance and direction is a range on the south shore, about fifty miles in length, commencing at Cape Monmouth and terminating in detached hills in the vicinity of the south side of the First Narrow. The courses, also, of both the First and Second Narrows, which are just within the eastern entrance of the strait, are nearly parallel with these hills; and the smaller ranges of eminences, Elizabeth Island and the clitfy land of Cape Negro, where the clay formation commences, all tread to the N.N.E., preserving a general resemblance of form and character to the two ranges above-mentioned.

The irregularity of the topographic features of the more western portion of the Strait, combined with its confused assemblage and immense number of islands and rocks—the regularity of the strata,—the coinciding parallelism of all the bays, channels, and sounds,—and the total absence of islands in the central portion or slate formation, together with the remarkable similarity of the direction of the hills and coast line, and the stratification of the