377 



ACCOUNT 



OF THE 



ARCTIC CARBONIFEROUS FOSSILS. 



BY 



J. W. SALTER, ESQ., F.G.S., 



OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



THE Expedition has been fortunate in supplying some miss- 

 ing links in the Geology of the Arctic regions. Former 

 researches, dating from the time of Parry's voyages, had 

 shown that the great formations of limestone which occupy 

 the coast lines of the western Polar lands, were of Palaeozoic 

 age ; and while the corals and other fossils from Boothia and 

 Barrow Straits had been compared by Conybeare to those of 

 our Dudley limestone, the fossil plants of Melville Island 

 seemed to be identical in character with those of the coal 

 measures. 



The former of these suggestions, viz. that there was much 

 Silurian limestone in Polar America, received abundant con- 

 firmation from the collections made by Captain Austin's Ex- 

 pedition.* And the inference, drawn from the plants in Mel- 

 ville Island, that the carboniferous rocks were not missing in 

 the north, has been sustained unexpectedly by the researches 

 of Captain Sir E. Belcher and the officers and gentlemen 

 under his command. 



* See Appendix, with plates, to Dr. Sutherland's Journal. Long- 

 man, 1852. 



VOL. II. 2 C 



