CARBONIFEROUS FOSSILS. 379 



punctatus and Strophalosia striata, besides Corals and Bryozoa 

 of the carboniferous type, and a species of Spirifer which Von 

 Buch thought worthy of a separate account, and a comparison 

 with other large exotic species. 



The chief interest attaching to the last-mentioned fossil is, 

 that the same peculiar Spirifer was found by Sir E. Belcher 

 in company with the species about to be noticed. 



It would be out of place here to notice the valuable contri- 

 bution to Arctic geology made by Professor Koninck* of 

 Liege, in which he shows distinctly the occurrence of the 

 Permian rocks in Spitzbergen itself, in a latitude as high as 

 that of Albert Land, were it not for the indication it affords 

 of higher and higher geological horizons as we approach the 

 pole; thus giving confirmation to another discovery of Captain 

 Belcher and his associates, and which has just been elaborated 

 by Professor Owen, viz. that secondary rocks with bones of 

 Ichthyosauri ! are to be detected in these Cimmerian regions. 

 Some lias shells, too, are quoted by Professor Haughton (in 

 the communication above adverted to), from Prince Patrick's 

 Land, 76 30'; so that there seems no good reason to doubt 

 that true Lower Secondary strata, in situ, are to be found in 

 this the extremest point of the western polar land ; and that 

 when these fossils were deposited, conditions of climate some- 

 thing like those of our own shores were prevailing in latitudes 

 not far short of 80. 



It is not allowed to enter here into the speculations to which 

 such discoveries must lead, and we return to the description 

 of the fossils, premising that some of them Productus Cora, 

 Spirifer Keilhavii, etc. were found on the top of Exmouth 

 Island itself, the sandstone cliffs of which are capped by the 

 limestone; and close upon this again lie the Ichthyosaurian 

 bones. The greater part however of the fossils were weathered 

 out on loose slabs which strewed the coast, particularly at 

 Depot Point, on the northern side of Albert Land, where 



* First published in the Bull, de 1'Academie Royale de Belgique 

 (1846), vol. xiii. p. 592, and again repeated, with figures, in vol. xvi. 

 No. 12. 



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