In the end of August, while the “Alert” was lying in Port Lapierrière, at Lieut. Gordon’s request, and with the assistance of Mr. James Tyrell, P.L.S., I made a track-survey of the Outer Digges Island. It was found to be about eight miles long and three miles wide, and to be separated from the Inner Digges by a straight channel, about one mile wide. It is formed entirely of Laurentian gneiss, which strikes with the longer axis of the island. This island has been thoroughly glaciated. Around its western end the groovings run north-eastward (true), but along the north side they set more nearly east, showing that the stream of ice was flowing out of the bed of Hudson’s Bay and eastward in the Strait. The outer points of this shore are all rounded and bald, with the glacial grooving and fluting strongly marked, as may be seen in the accompanying sketch of one of these small capes. [Illustration: CAPE ON NORTH SIDE OF OUTER DIGGES ISLAND.] [Sidenote: High bluffs of Cape Wolstenholme.] [Sidenote: Coast south of Cape Wolstenholme.] [Sidenote: Recession of the sea.] [Sidenote: Appearance of the country.] The south-eastern part of Inner Digges Island presents a high and nearly vertical cliff, facing the still higher bluffs of Cape Wolstenholme, of which an outline-sketch was given in my report for 1880. From the cape these bluffs continue southward for some miles, diminishing in height and merging into the rounded hills of the coast further down. At about thirty miles south of the cape the country, forming the immediate coast, has become comparatively low, but ranges of partially-rounded hills rise higher and higher towards the interior. On our return from the west side of Hudson’s Bay in the month of September, I explored this part of the coast in a small boat, and found the rocks to consist of common forms of gneiss, with veins and patches of fine-grained red granite in some places. On the mainland, about twenty miles south of Port Lapierrière is a very ancient Eskimo camping ground, which is still inhabited. We could not ascertain from the natives what they called the place, and for the sake of convenience in having some name for it we called it Hyla. In this neighborhood the evidences of the rapid recession of the sea are visible on all sides, in the form of shoaling bays and lagoons, as well as in raised beaches and ridges of shingle. The latter sometimes form the isthmuses, separating bays or connecting islands with each other or with the main land. Ponds and small lakes, of a mile or two in length, are numerous between the ranges of hills, or small mountains in the rear. The clay and sand in the valleys between these ridges, up to an elevation of about 200 feet above the sea, are full of marine shells, of which the genera _Tellina_, _Saxicava_, _Cardium_, _Pecten_, _Mya_, _Mytilus_ and _Astarte_ are the most common. Viewed from a distance, these hills and mountains have a naked appearance, but in walking over the