Geoldg^ «/ Scandinavia and Spitsbergen. 38^'-' 



nameless islet placed more to the north, which being composed 

 of gneiss, will leave to that rock the glory of forming the fex^-^ 

 treme northern boundary of Europe. 



At Hammerfest, M. Robert found an extensive deposit of 

 volcanic scoriae coming, no doubt, from Iceland, and, among 

 the drift wood from America and Russia, the fruit of Mimosa 

 scandens, an occurrence only of interest by illustrating the 

 history of currents. 



From Hammerfest, the French expedition repaired to 

 Spitzbergen, which M. Robert found to belong almost entirely 

 to the secondary and transition periods, notwithstanding the 

 pointed form of its mountains, which caused the Germans, as 

 is well knowm, to name the country Spitzbergen. This coun- 

 try must have undergone some great commotion, judging from 

 the upraising of the strata of the coal-formation ; and it pre- 

 sents, as well as Norway, evident marks of having been co- 

 vered by the sea. M. Robert thinks, that the appearance of 

 this island is contemporaneous with that of the mountains of 

 Scandinavia, that, in a word, they are sisters. Here, in par- 

 ticular, he noticed high mountains of calcareous breccia (Na' 

 ^e/^M^J, and others composed of a great number of strata 

 containing black bituminous coal, and impressions which ap- 

 pear to have belonged exclusively to large monocotyledonous 

 and herbaceous or annual plants, but there were no impres- 

 sions of ligneous plants, such as tree-ferns. On this subject 

 M. Robert remarks, that this fact, if fully established, goes to 

 support the theory of the primitive heat of the globe, for while 

 the present temperate regions were capable, under this -influ- 

 ence, of causing the development of large palms, tree-ferns, 

 &c., as is proved by the fossils, nothing could grow, at the same 

 period, in Spitzbergen, but herbaceous plants, the six months 

 of night inevitably producing putrefaction, and, consequently, 

 the absence of ligneous vegetables. M. Robert has liliewise 

 observed in Spitzbergen, a limestone with spirifers, &c., and 

 has seen a hypersthenic syenite in numerous places which is 

 covered by a steatitic slate without any kind of fossil. M. 

 Robert has paid particular attention to the glaciers of this 

 island, which are as numerous as the valleys, and run directly 

 ffijm? 8 xi'^jRiantiiB^ a0oijn9ni on joo ; jinamaS to ^Vrto** arit to 



