HB Macfarlane on the Primitive Formations 



idea of the extent to which this member of the group is de- 

 veloped, fi'om the district west of Bandag Lake. On the road to 

 Mo church, we are surrounded by rugged mountains about 2500 

 feet high, and these from the bottom of the valley to their sum- 

 mits, consist of the same mass of diorite, which has here a breadth 

 of about two geographical miles." 



The conglomerates, of which mention has already been made, 

 have such an important bearing on the question of the origin of 

 the primitive slate formation, that I may be excused for inserting 

 here, at length, a translation of Keilhau's description of them. 

 These conglomerates have been observed : 1. above Hjserdal 

 church ; 2. on the road from Fladdal to Manddal ; and, 3. on 

 the road from Guldnaes to Berge, in Morgedal. " The first loca- 

 lity in which the conglomerate quartzites occur in repeated alter- 

 nations with hornblende rock (diorite), has been described by 

 Naumann (Beitrage I, 79). The quartz layers there consist of 

 what often appears to be a very fine-grained micaceous sandstone ; 

 in which harder round or oval concretions, sometimes feldspathic, 

 sometimes quartzose, and sometimes of still more varied natures, 

 are imbedded. The softer cementing matter is frequently worn 

 away, so that the harder masses stand out from the rock, like 

 hemispheres. The smaller and more varied in their nature these 

 concretions (which appear formed exactly like boulders) are, the 

 more talcose the enclosing mass becomes ; whereby the slaty 

 texture of the quarzite becomes undulating and confused." 



The second of the above mentioned localities is on the Mandcela, 

 a short distance before it falls into the Sillegjord. The bluish- 

 grey, very pure and crystalline quartzite which here occurs, is 

 for a considerable distance around, apparently unstratified, and 

 cannot strictly be defined as quartz-slate. It forms powerful 

 masses, in the midst of which large and indistinctly limited por- 

 tions, are more or less thickly impregnated with small rounded 

 portions of quartz of the most difierent shades of color, from 

 white to red and dark-grey. Some of these are quartz, others 

 jasper, while others resemble hornstone; but all of them, even those 

 which most closely resemble their quartzose matrix, are sharply de- 

 fined, and appear like pebbles cemented into it. The fact that 

 these portions are not arranged as separate layers, but spread 

 out as irregular areas, in the massive and crystalline quartz, 

 is to be regarded as unfavorable to the opinion of the me- 

 chanical origin of these conglomerates." " At the third of the 



