Page:Report of the Second Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the "Fram," 1898-1902 (volume 4).djvu/490

1898-1902. No. 36.] SUMMARY OF GEOLOGICAL RESULTS. 21 layers of lignite. Only in two places were fossils found, viz. in the valley east of Gape Blaamanden on the east side of Eureka Sound, and in Stenkul (Coal) Fjord, an inner, side branch to Baumann Fjord. The fossil plants collected at the latter locality have been studied by Prof. NATHORST, whose results are published in ,,Tertiare Pflanzenreste aus Ellesmere- Land" (Ihis report no. 35, 1915). In this paper are also found state- ments by SCHEI concerning the Tertiary deposits in various places, and by Dr. SIMMONS, the botanist of the expedition, on the Tertiary beds at Stenkul Fjord. A detailed stratigraphic section shows a great number of lignite layers, one of which has a thickness of 1,5 m. The plant remnants identified by NATHORST belong to Sequoia Langsdorfii (BRONGNIART) HEER and Glyptostrobus Ungeri HEER (?). Besides are mentioned leaves that probably belong to a Populus, furthermore fossil wood, and some extraordinarily well-preserved fungi found in the leaves of the Sequoia. Between the time when these Tertiary beds were deposited and the gravel and sand deposits of late quaternary time were laid down, we have nothing left of geological accumulations. In this space of time considerable denudation certainly took place in this part of the world, and (he sculpturing of the chief features of the present land surface was done, the detrita! rock being carried out into the surrounding sea. Un- doubtedly, as is evident from the photographs taken during the expedition, a great part of the erosion was done by glaciers, which, contrary to what SCHEI thinks to have been the case 1 , certainly had a much greater distri- bution than at present. This is evident from the ice-eroded forms of the mountains, as seen in e.g. pi. 6, fig. 2, from the character of the valleys, like those seen to the right in ol. 6, fig. 1. A photograph showing nice glacial polishing is given in pi. IV, fig. 2. Furthermore it may be mentioned that SCHEI in his diary telling about his visit to Norman Lockyer Island, lying rather isolated, in Princess Marie Bay, mentiones the occurrence of erratics at the top of the island (250 m. high); among other things he found a piece of granitic rock. In the cairn at the top he found pieces of the limestone of the underlying rock, (which was generally snow- covered at the time of Schei's visit) and these showed distinct glacial polishing with striae. The typical fjord-landscapes of Ellesmere Land, also, can be explained only by a heavy ice-covering of the whole country. 1 See especially The Geograph. Journal, XXII, p. 6465.