GEOLOGY. 299 



From this collection, as well as from other sources to which I have had 

 access, as derived from the voyages of Parry, Franklin, Back, Penny, Ingle- 

 field, and the recent work of Dr. T. Sutherland, I am led to believe that the 

 oldest fossiliferous rock of the Arctic region is the upper Silurian, viz. a lime- 

 stone identical hi composition and organic contents with the well known rocks 

 of Wenlock, Dudley, and Gothland. 



Xo clear evidence has been offered as to the existence of Devonian rocks, 

 though we have heard of red and brownish sandstone, as observed in very 

 many localities*by various explorers, and which may possibly belong to that 

 formation. But whilst in the fossils we have the keys to the age of the Silu- 

 rian rocks, we have as yet no adequate grounds whereupon to form a rational 

 conjecture as to the presence of the Old Red Sandstone, or Devonian group. 



True carboniferous Producti and Spiriferi have been brought home by Sir 

 E. Belcher from Albert Land, north of Wellington Channel ; and hence we 

 may affirm positively, that the true carboniferous rocks are also present. 

 Here and there bituminous schist and coal are met with ; the existence of the 

 latter being marked at several points on the general chart published by the 

 Admiralty. With paleeozoic rocks are associated others of igneous origin, 

 and of crystalline and metamorphosed character. 



Of secondary formations no other evidence has been rnefc with except some 

 fossil bones of Saurians, brought home by Sir E. Belcher, from the smaller 

 islands north of Wellington Channel. Of the old Tertiary rocks, as charac- 

 terized by then 1 organic remains, no distinct traces have, as far as I am 

 aware, been discovered ; and hence we may infer that the ancient submarine 

 sediments, having been elevated, remained during a very long period beyond 

 the influence of depository action. 



Let us now see how the other facts, brought to our notice by the gallant 

 Arctic explorers who have recently returned, bear upon the relations of land 

 and water in this Arctic region during the quasi-modern period, when the pre- 

 sent species of trees were hi existence. 



Capt. M'Clure states that in Banks' Land, in latitude 74 48' and thence 

 extending along a range of hills ranging from 350 to 500 feet above the sea, 

 and from half a mile to upwards inland, he found great quantities of wood, 

 some of which was rotten and decomposed, but much of it sufficiently fresh to 

 be cut up and used as fuel. "Whenever this wood was in a well preserved 

 state, it was either detected in gullies or ravines, or had probably been 

 recently exhumed from the frozen soil or ice. In such cases, and particularly 

 on the northern faces of the slopes where the sun never acts, wood might be 

 preserved any length of time, inasmuch as Capt. M'Clure teljs me he has eaten 

 beef, which though hung up in his cold larder for two years, was perfectly 

 untainted. 



The most remarkable of these specimens of well preserved recent wood is 

 the segment of a tree, which, by Capt. M'Clure's orders, was sawn from a 

 trunk sticking out of a ravine, and which is now exhibited. It measures 3 

 feet 6 inches in circumference. Still more interesting is the cone of one of these 

 fir trees which he brought home, and which apparently belongs to an Abies 

 resembling A. alba, a plant still living within the Arctic circle. One of Lieut. 



