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48 CATARACT IN HAMILTON’S RIVER. BOULDERS.
terranean action immediately underground. I t appears, however, that some years
ago Mr. Maclean, a gentleman in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company,
whilst endeavouring to reach the east coast of Labrador from the westward,
inspected these falls. In an account published by him of his journey*, Mr.
^Maclean states that, at a distance of six miles above the cataract, the stream
contracts in width from 600 to about 100 yards, and, after rushing along in a
continuous foaming rapid, finally contracts to a breadth of about 50 yards,
when it precipitates itself over the rock which forms the fall. I t now continues
its course, pent up in a precipitous zigzag gorge, for thirty miles—the walls of
rock sometimes rising to a height of 300 feet on either side, and concealing the
torrent from view till the chasm is reached. The formation is said to be syenitic.
At North-west River, oats, barley, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and rhubarb
have become articles of regular produce, but as yet only in limited quantity—the
scanty nature of the surface-soil, which is characteristic of the shores of
this inlet, rendering cultivation of all kinds difficult, notwithstanding the high
temperature during the summer months, and the great facilities of irrigation.
Hay-making is now going on, the thermometer standing, in the shade, this
afternoon, at 84° Fahr.
Aug. 30.—Leaving North-west River at an early hour this morning, the
‘ Bulldog ’ commenced her return voyage down the inlet, and at noon anchored
off the bluff headland known as “ Long Point,” in order to suiTey.
The hiUs in the vicinity of this headland are entirely composed of a grey
finely striated labradorite, traversed by narrow dykes of dense black basalt. At
North-west River, wherever the rock formation cropped out, the same kind of
labradorite was to be seen. The shore is here covered with a succession of large
rounded boulders of felspathic, and also hypogene rocks not to be met with in
the immediate neighbourhood. Some of these were as much as 3 feet in
diameter, and indicate that the drift-ice, by which it is probable they were transported
to their present position, must have been of very considerable thickness.
At North-west River I learned that in ordinary seasons the ice on the inlet
attains a thickness of three feet. At Chator Island, on which I landed on the
27th inst., I saw some boulders of quartzose rock, at least 5 feet in diameter.
* ‘ Notes of a Twenty-five years’ Service on the Hudson’s Bay Territory.’ By J. Maclean. London,
NATURE OF THE BED OF THE INLET. 4!)
Wherever I landed along the shores of the mainland, there was a thick-matted
layer of sphagnum and lichen growth. At “ Long Point ” this was almost completely
obscured here and there, where the forest did not extend, by a network
of red and black whortleberry, wild yellow raspberry, and, on the more rocky
surfaces, common juniper and crowberry. The fruit of the first of these was
so plentiful that it could be shaken off in handfuls. Both bears and ptarmigan,
which abound in the neighbourhood, feed on it almost exclusively. Lower
down the inlet the wild fetid currant was met with.
The ‘ Bulldog ’ proceeded on her course at 3 p.m., and, after encountering a very
powerful current whilst rounding a headland abreast of Esquimaux Island,
anchored for the night in Esquimaux Harbour. This current was an ascending
one, due to the flood tide. ,
The length of Hamilton’s Inlet, from Indian Harbour to North-west River, is
118 miles. At its mouth the width is nearly fifteen miles, the deepest water
at this part being about the central portion of the five miles intervening between
George Island and the northern shore. The bottom, as brought up by the
sounding-machine along the navigable channel, consists of detritus of granitic,
basaltic, and felspathic rock, with an extremely small sprinkling, as far up as
“ Bluff Head Cove,” of the lower animal and vegetable forms. From that point
up to North-west River, it consists of a coarse felspathic and quartzose sand,
without any organic structures whatever. Near the sea the bottom is coarsely
muddy ; but the finer particles gradually disappear, and at the head of the inlet
the quantity of mud is inappreciable, the bottom consisting entirely of clear sand.
Wherever I dredged near the anchorages in shallow water fringing the shore,
I found Algoe, Confervoe, and the more minute forms of animal and vegetable life
abundantly represented, and large quantities of fine mud. The very marked
paucity, and in some places total absence, of minute organic forms, fine mud, or
debris of the larger organisms, clearly points to the current being of sufficient
velocity to wash out the central channel, as it were, and convey the particles thus
acquired far out to sea.
Sept. 16.—On the 3Ist ult. the ‘Bulldog,’ having completed the survey of
Hamilton’s Inlet, proceeded to sea and sounded, in a north-easterly direction, as
high as lat. 56° 2' N., long. 54° 3' W. The course was now altered, and, steering
to the southward, she passed through the Sti-aits of Belle Isle on the 3rd inst., and