Page:Report of the Second Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the "Fram," 1898-1902 (volume 4).djvu/491

OLAF HOLTEDAHL [SEC. ART. EXP. FRAM A very characteristic landform is the plateau-like surface (see fig. 4) about which SCHEI writes (prel. report p. 7): ,,The Archa-an plateau in the south-east of Ellesmere Land, which was once covered with sedimentary rocks of the younger formations, lias been planed down to the same horizontal level as the deeply faulted plateaus on Hie north and west, so that it now forms a level tableland, with an average elevation of 3000 feet, and no isolated peaks rising to any considerable height above the general level, while short valleys dip from the crown of the plateau all round to its almost vertical outer edge. On the wot of Jones Sound, this Archaean plateau (ItorstJ is continued in the strata of (lamhrian, Silurian, and Devonian age, which, inclining gently towards the north-north-west, in part pass under the sea in Norwegian I'.av. and in part are supplanted, e.(j. at Bird island Fjord (Fnglofjord) and Isthmus Fjord Fidefjord). by their dislocated equivalents and by younger deposits. The Cambrian and Silurian deposits are continued northwards in the elevated ground of Bache Peninsula and about Flagler Fjord. The more violent dislocations which have taken place in the vicinity of Eureka Sound, conjoined with the smallness of the faulted areas and the steepness of the dip, have produced there a more extensive articulation of the surface. The plateaus are cut up and divided by numerous permanent longitudinal and transverse valleys, while their highest parts have been easily moulded into crests and isolated peaks. Viewed from certain positions, the landscape there presents some of the rich modelling and variety of Alpine forms; whereas from other points of observation it has faithfully preserved the character of the tableland it really is. This same plateau type of formation, which is characteristic of Ellesmere Land, appears again west of Eureka Sound, the south, west, and north sides of Heiberg Land, as well as north-west of the folding strike in Grinnell Land." The remarkably even rock surface found in Braskerudflya(seepl.II,fig.2), south of Bay Fjord is, according to SCHEI, situated not more than about JiK) in. above sea level - that is not much above the highest marine late quaternary terraces mentioned below vel must certainly be of quite another and greater age. The character of Ibis landscape seems to be that of a avecnt plain; the form of the surface indicates, however, ice erosion following the modelling of the plain, and a period of greater ice extent thus coming between the culling of this plain and the building up of the relatively very young marine terraces. As to the marine terraces SCHEI in his preliminary report writes (p. 7): ^Marine terrace-, ;u , quite common. They occur everywhere throughout the Have-, Sound ..field," also at Fort Juliane up to an elevation of 571 feet.