Islands of Group I.
Flat-lying beds of light-coloured yellow and drab limestone occupy the lowlands of the southern and western parts of Southampton island, and also form outliers in depressions in the crystalline rocks on the north side of the island, notably at Duke of York bay.
A considerable collection of fossils was brought home from the beds forming the southern half of the west coast of the island. These have been examined by Dr. Ami and Mr. Lambe, whose determinations will be found in Appendix iv. The fossils show that the rocks contain a fauna closely resembling that of the Lake Winnipeg basin, and extend over a period from the Galena-Trenton to the Guelph and Niagara, or from the upper part of the Cambro-Silurian to high up in the Silurian.
Soundings taken on the even bottom of Fisher strait show that the limestones extend without a break to Coats island (to the southward of Southampton), where they occupy all of its surface except the portion at the east end of the island where the Archæan ridge crosses it. A few fossils from Mansfield island show that it also is formed of limestones of these horizons.
At Cape Chidley a collection of fossils from loose pieces of limestone corresponds with fossils from Akpatok island, and the direction of ice movement out of Hudson strait leaves little doubt that the loose limestone of Chidley came from that island. These fossils show a slightly wider range in age than the rocks of Southampton do; they extend from the Lower Galena-Trenton to the Lower Heidelberg.