382 EXPEDITION TOWARD THE NORTH POLE. 



designating tlie exact locality from wliich it was obtained. If two or 

 more beds of rock (sandstone, limestone, clay, marl, or otber material) 

 occur at the locality from which specimens are taken, the label should 

 also have a number on it corresponding to the particular bed in which 

 it was found, as designated in a section made on the spot in a uote-book. 

 This should be done in order that the specimens from each bed may be 

 separated from those found iu others, whether the beds are separable 

 by differences of composition, or by difierences in the groups of fossils 

 found in each ; and it is, moreover, often important that this care should 

 be observed, eveu when one or more of the beds are of inconsiderable 

 thickness, if such beds are characterized by peculiar fossils. For in 

 such cases it often happens that what may be a mere seam at one place 

 may represent an important formation at another. 



Specimens taken directly from rocks iu place are, of course, usu- 

 ally more instructive than those found loose ; but it often happens that 

 much better specimens of fossils can be found already weathered out, 

 and lying detached about an outcrop of hard rock, than can be 

 broken from it. These can generally be referred to their place in the 

 section noted at the locality, by adhering portions of the matrix, or from 

 finding more or less perfect examples of the same species in the beds in 

 place ; but it is usually the better plan to note ou the labels of such 

 specimens that they were found loose, especially if there are any evi- 

 dences that they may have been transported from some other locality 

 by drift agencies. 



All exposures of rocks, and especially" those of limestone, should be 

 carefully examined for fossils, for it often happens that hard limestones 

 and other rocks that show no traces of organic remains ou the natural 

 surfaces, (covered, as they often are, with lichens and mosses,) will be 

 found to contain fossils when broken into. In cases where fossils are 

 found to exist iu a hard rock, if time and other circumstances permit, 

 it is desirable that it should be vigorously broken with a heavy hammer 

 provided for that purpose, and as many specimens of the fossils as pos- 

 sible (or as the means of transportation will permit) should be col- 

 lected. 



Fossils from rocks of all ages will, of course, be interesting and in- 

 structive, but it is particularly desirable that organic remains found in 

 the later tertiary and quarternary formations of these high northern 

 latitudes, if any such exist there, should be collected. These, whether of 

 animals or i>lants, would throw much light on the question respecting 

 the climatic conditions of the polar regions at, or just preceding, the 

 advent of man. 



Specimens illustrating the lithological character of all the rocks ob- 

 served in each district explored should also be collected, as well as of the 

 organic remains found iu fossiliferous beds; also all kinds of minerals. 

 Those of rocks and amorphous minerals should be trimmed to as nearly 

 the same size and form as can conveniently be done — say 3 by 4 inches 



