Being accustomed from childhood to the strong odours of seal blubber and rancid meat, they are not at all delicate in their senses of taste and smell, and it occasionally happens that their liking for tainted meat ends disastrously, especially when a rotten porpoise furnishes the food. The writer knows of several deaths due to poisoning from this cause.
As a people, they are very hospitable and kind; but like other savages would probably soon tire of continuous efforts to support helpless whites cast upon them, especially when the guests assume a superiority over their hosts.
Upper Encampment, Chesterfield Inlet.
CHAPTER VIII.
GEOLOGY.
The following summary of the geology of the northeastern coast of America and of the Arctic islands is based, so far as the southern and eastern portions of that region are concerned, upon the observations made on the cruise of the Neptune, and is supplemented by the reports of previous explorers in the areas beyond the limit of the voyage of that vessel. The geological work of the Arctic explorers until recent years was necessarily poor and disconnected owing to the absence of trained men, and to such work being of secondary importance among the objects of the expeditions.
The observations of these earlier explorers were carefully gathered from the different narratives, and ably summarized by Dr. G. M. Dawson in a report on the Geology of the Northern Portion of the Dominion of Canada, published in 1886. This work has been largely followed in the present report, but such corrections have been made as are justified by the knowledge gained in explorations since the date of its publication.
The notes on the geology of the southern part of Baffin island are from the observations of Dr. R. Bell, while those on Ellesmere island and the Sverdrup islands are based on the work of P. Schei, the geologist of the Fram.
The rocks of the Arctic islands and of the northern coasts of the continent present an almost continuous ascending series from the Archæan to the Tertiary, while the upper loose material represents various phases of the Glacial age and of the subsequent Post-Glacial deposits.