BRIEF NOTES. 



191 



Mr. Wood reminds us that, though the march 

 of Science has destroyed much of our belief in 

 the sweet old tales of fairy-land, yet she has 

 given us ample compensation, inasmuch as the 



" fairy-tales of science " are in reality more full 

 of grace and poetry than any of the myths that 

 delighted our childhood. 



— Chambers's Journal. 



BRIEF NOTES 



Geology of the Arctic Expedition. — Geological 

 investigation in the polar regions is beset with 

 difficulties of so grave a character that very few 

 collections have hitherto been brought home by 

 arctic explorers, and these have necessarily been 

 meagre. It must be remembered, too, that most 

 expeditions have been fitted out for purposes of 

 search rather than with the view of making natu- 

 ral-history collections. During Sir George Nares's 

 Expedition, however, special attention was paid to 

 geological observations wherever practicable, and 

 Captain Feilden thus contrived to collect more 

 than two thousand specimens of rocks and fos- 

 sils. He also had the good fortune to find his 

 collections brought home in safety — a fact worth 

 mentioning because some other fine collections 

 have been lost to science through the mishaps 

 incident to arctic Raveling. The recently-formed 

 collections, and the results deduced from their 

 study, were lately laid before the Geological So- 

 ciety. In working out the stratigraphical results 

 Captain Feilden has had the benefit of Mr. De 

 Ranee's aid, and in the paleontological depart- 

 ment that of Mr. Etheridge. The fundamental 

 rocks of the area under examination consist of 

 gneiss which is probably of Laurentian age, the 

 Canadian rocks extending into the polar area. 

 These are followed by unfossiliferous slates and 

 grits, known as the Cape Rawson beds, which are 

 evidently older than the fossil-bearing Upper Silu- 

 rians. It is proved, indeed, by the recent expedi- 

 tion, that Lower Silurian rocks exist in Grinnell 

 and Hall Lands, thus disproving Murchison's view 

 that the polar area was dry land during the 

 Lower Silurian period. Sixty species of fossils 

 have been determined by Mr. Etheridge, ranging 

 from the Lower to the Upper Silurian, and in- 

 cluding some characteristic forms of Llandeilo 

 and Wenlock age. The cream-colored dolomites 

 found in abundance by some of the previous ex- 

 plorers are believed to represent the whole of the 

 Silurian and perhaps part of the Devonian period. 

 True marine Devonians have been discovered for 

 the first time in Grinnell Land. Here, too, the 



carboniferous limestone was found rising to a 

 height of 2,000 feet. This formation extends to 

 the most northern point yet reached, and proba- 

 bly strikes beneath the Polar Sea to Spitzbergen. 

 About thirty species, chiefly Brachiopods and 

 Polyzoa, were procured from the carboniferous 

 limestone of Cape Joseph Henry, the most north- 

 erly of the twenty localities from which fossils 

 were collected. Mr. Etheridge points out the 

 greater resemblance of the arctic Pala;ozoic fau- 

 na to that of America than to that of Europe. 

 No Mesozoic rocks are known until we reach the 

 Cretaceous strata, which are represented in Green- 

 land by plant-bearing beds that indicate by their 

 fossils a warm climate something like that of 

 Egypt at the present day. The vegetation of the 

 Miocene beds in the arctic regions points to 

 climatal conditions about 30° warmer than those 

 which at present prevail. The Miocene beds 

 of Grinnell Land contain the common fir (Pinus 

 abics), the birch, poplar, and other trees similar 

 to those which occur in Spitzbergen. A seam 

 of Miocene coal, thirty feet in thickness, was 

 discovered by the expedition at Lady Franklin 

 Sound. — Academy. 



Polar Exploration. — Concerning the Swedish 

 exploring expedition to the north polar regions, 

 which is to sail this summer from Gothenburg, we 

 take the following details from Dos Ausland : It 

 will consist of only one vessel, the Vega, a steam- 

 whaler of 500 tons burden, and 60 horse-power, 

 but there will be also a small steam-launch for 

 soundings off the coasts, and for river explora- 

 tion. The expedition will be under the general 

 direction of Prof. Nordenskjold, with Captain 

 Palander, a navigator of long experience in polar 

 seas, as commander of the Vega. The crew will 

 be selected from the Swedish navy, and, with the 

 ship's officers, surgeon, and three or four men of 

 science, will muster about thirty souls. The 

 Vega will set sail about July 1st from Gothen- 

 burg for either Tromso or Hammerfest, thence to 

 Matotshkin-Shar, in Nova Zembla, where she will 



