lyo 



KklDI JOK NANSKN. 



M.-N. Kl. 



-jy^T,— «— w^lHirh 



Fig. 128. West coast of Bear Island, showing the horizontal plane of the strandflat, and 

 the hills rising steeply above it. (Photograph by O. Holtedahl 19181. 



J. G. Andersson says that in its western part the plain is perfectly 

 level. The surface consists there of Carboniferous limestone and sand- 

 stone which by weathering form a boggy argilaceous soil. The region of 

 Spirifer limestone east of North Harbour (Nord-havn) is somewhat 

 undulating, and so is also the extensive area of Devonian sandstones. 

 Over the whole plain there are numerous shallow depressions, with 

 hundreds of small lakes, but no indications of any valleys. 



Most part of the plain is covered by débris, big, and small stones, 

 obviously formed /;; situ by frost disintegration, but in some places, 

 especially in its inner higher part, low flat ridges of bare rock are seen 

 (Fig. 129), as is mentioned by Holtedahl. 



Andersson considers this remarkable ])lain to have been formed in 

 preglacial, and posttriassic. time by marine abrasion (i. c. wave erosion), 

 in the manner suggested by Richthofen. "In the weak and easily dis- 

 integrated Devonian and Carboniferous layers which build up this low 

 land, the abrasion has advanced relatively rapidly, Avhile the Heclahook- 

 massive to the south has offered much greater resistance" [1900 a, p. 278]. 



I think there can be no doubt that Andersson is right in assuming 

 that this is actually a plane of marine denudation, at any rate the lower 

 anrl flattest part of it, as there is no other process that can cut an extensive 

 level surface like this in solid rock with no valleys and no actual drainage 

 system, only numerous shallow lakes with accidental outlets. According 

 to my view, however, it is not the wave erosion, but the shore erosion by 

 frost that has been the chief agent for the development of this plane as 

 w^ell as that of the Norwegian strandflat. The wave action has been of 



