Countries discovered hy Captains Parry and Ross. 1 05 



sphere and the ocean, into its present insular and peninsular 

 form ; and that, consequently, the secondary and tertiary for- 

 mations were formerly, in those regions, more extensively distri- 

 buted than they are at present. 



4. That, previous to the deposition of the coal-formation, 

 as that of Melville Island, the transition and primitive hills and 

 plains supported a rich and luxuriant vegetation, principally of 

 cryptogamous plants, especially the ferns, the prototypes of 

 which are now met with only in the tropical regions of the 

 earth. The fossil corals of the secondary Umestones also inti- 

 mate, that before, during, and after, the deposition of the coal- 

 formation, the waters of the ocean were so constituted as to sup- 

 port polyparia, closely resembling those of the present equa- 

 torial seas. 



5. That, previous to, and during, the deposition of the ter- 

 tiary strata, these now frozen regions supported forests of di- 

 cotyledonous plants, as is shewn by the fossil dicotyledonous 

 woods met with in connection with these strata in Baffin's Bay, 

 and by the fossil wood of Melville Island, Cape York, and 

 Byam Martin Island. 



6. That the boulders or rolled blocks met with in different 

 quarters, and in tracts distant from their original localities, af- 

 ford evidence of the passage of water across them, and at a pe- 

 riod subsequent to the deposition of the newest solid strata, 

 namely, those of the tertiary class. 



7. That nowhere are there any discoverable traces of the 

 agency of modern volcanoes ; and we may add, that, in the Arc- 

 tic Regions, the only appearances of this kind are those in Jan 

 Mayen"'s Island, described by Scoresby. 



8. That the only intimations of older volcanic action are those 

 afforded by the presence of secondary trap-rocks, such as basalt, 

 greenstone, trap-tuffa, and amygdaloid. 



9. That the black bituminous coal, the coal of the oldest coal- 

 formation, which some speculators maintain to be confined to 

 the more temperate and warmer regions of the earth, is now 

 proved, by its discovery in Melville Island, far to the west, and 

 in Jameson's Land, far to the east, in Old Greenland, to form an 

 interesting and important feature in the geognostical constitution 

 of arctic countries. 



