NO. 14.] MECHANICAL COMPOSITION OF SAMPLES. 21 



1 mm. By way of comparison, the results from the Ingolf Expedition may 

 be given here, showing the particles of more than 0"5 mm. to have amounted 

 to 4"17 per cent in the case of the Grey Deep-Sea Clay, a value which is 

 about 69 times as large as in the case of the Fram Expedition samples; 

 while the number for the Transition Clay is 3'44, and for Globigerina Ooze 

 0"90. Even if a large proportion of these coarser particles in the Ingolf 

 Expedition samples are derived from localities where the deposits contain 

 a large quantity of stony particles from the rocks on the floor of the ocean 

 itself, it has also been proved that a very large proportion of the stony 

 particles must be carried thither by icebergs. In any case, the small per- 

 centages in the Fram Expedition samples show that both these factors are 

 virtually altogether absent. 



It has already been mentioned in the introduction, that in the Polar Sea 

 north of Siberia, there are no icebergs to convey clay, sand, and gravel to 

 the sea-bottom. Siberia sends out no glaciers, and those that come from 

 Spitsbergen and other arctic lands, are not brought by the currents into this 

 region. The inference that may be drawn from the above figures is of 

 greater importance, namely, that in the whole region traversed by the Fram 

 north of Siberia, there are no projecting rocks upon the sea-bottom; for 

 these would always reveal their presence by a considerable quantity of stones 

 in the samples, and generally also by an alteration in the mineralogical com- 

 position of the samples from one locality to another, if the submarine rocks 

 varied in their nature. As will subsequently be related, it is not possible 

 to prove anything of the sort in this region. 



Again, a very important conclusion may be drawn from the complete 

 absence of solid rocks on the floor of the ocean, namely, that this region 

 has been raised very little or not at all above the sea in any recent 

 geological period ; for wherever this has been the case, will always be apparent 

 from the great unevenness of the sea-bottom. The deposition of sediments 

 always takes place exceedingly slowly, and in the region under discussion 

 even more slowly than in most other places; and the very rough configura- 

 tion of the bottom, appearing near the coasts of the mainland, will only be 

 completely obliterated in the course of a very long time, by the gradual 

 filling up of the hollows with sediment. It may thus be assumed that this 



