These high abrupt cliffs are characteristic of the islands on both sides of Lancaster sound and to the northward of it.
The limestone islands of Hudson bay and that portion of southwest Baffin underlain by these rocks are very low and flat, with shallow water extending several miles from their shores.
Those northern islands, wholly or in part formed of the Mesozoic rocks, are characterized by low shores and no great elevation inland. At Ponds inlet, where an area of Tertiary deposits occurs, the country overlying it forms a wide plain deeply cut into by the streams that drain it.
ISLANDS OF GROUP I.
The islands of Hudson bay and Hudson strait are, naturally, divided into two sections by their physical characters, the first composed of those formed from the crystalline Archæan rocks, the second of the low islands of limestone. The first division includes Resolution, Big, Salisbury, Charles and Nottingham islands, together with many smaller ones along the north side of Hudson strait. These islands are physically alike, being moderately high and having ragged shore lines.
Resolution island lies on the north side of the eastern entrance to Hudson strait. It is nearly forty miles long, and averages twenty-five miles in breadth. The general elevation of the interior is under five hundred feet, and the land appears to rise quickly from the shores. The island is fringed by many rocky islets, and a number of good harbours are said to occur on all sides of it, but owing to the strong currents about the coast it has been rarely visited, except by ships caught in the ice.
Big island lies close to the north shore of the strait, and about one hundred and forty miles beyond its eastern entrance. The island is triangular in shape; the longest side, parallel to the mainland, has a length of thirty miles, the other two sides being each about twenty-five miles long. In physical character and elevation it is very like Resolution.
Charles is a narrow island some twenty-five miles long, situated in the southern part of the strait, being distant about twenty-five miles from the south side; its west end is ninety miles from Cape Wolstenholme at the western end of the strait. The eastern half of the island is high and rugged, and is connected with the lower rocky western end by a narrow sandy neck. The highest part of the western end does not reach an altitude of two hundred feet, and terminates in a long low point with shallow water extending from it for several miles.
Nottingham and Salisbury islands lie in the western entrance to Hudson strait. Their longer axis lies northwest and southeast. Nottingham is the more southward, and is about thirty-five miles long and averages about ten miles across. Salisbury lies to the northeast of Nottingham, and is separated from it by a deep channel about fifteen miles wide. The northern island is the larger, being nearly forty miles long and averaging fifteen miles across. Both are high and rugged, with a number of bays affording good harbours, especially at the southeast and northwest ends. The general altitude of these islands is nearly five hundred feet.
The second division of the islands of Group I. includes the large island of Southampton, together with Coats, Mansfield and Akpatok islands.