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Notes in regard to the Geology of' Cherry Island and Spitz- 

 bergen. By Professor Keilhau of Christiania. 



X HE great primitive land of Scandinavia continues onwards to 

 the extreme point of Norway ; but in this high latitude, some 

 newer formations make their appearance among the older. The 

 sandstone-quartz of Alten has been known since the travels of 

 the celebrated Von Buch. On the east, towards the Russian 

 dominions, there is a considerable district which deviates more 

 from the primitive formation than the sandstone-quartz of Al- 

 ten does. Sandstone and conglomerate extend across the sub- 

 jacent gneiss in a horizontal position, and here we do not meet 

 with the well known Norwegian and Swedish transition rocks, 

 but what appear to be secondary deposites. Notwithstanding, 

 it is difficult to refer to its proper place this sandstone of East 

 Finmark. Neither beds of limestone nor organic remains have 

 been met with in it, yet it is probably nearly allied to the " old 

 red sandstone." The porphyry and amygdaloid of this forma- 

 tion are here represented by clay stone and jasper. 



Hence, in Eastern Finmark, we find ourselves on the edge of 

 a great secondary basin. The first land which rises above the 

 level of the ocean in the Arctic Sea, beyond the North Cape, is 

 the small Cherry Island (Bear Island) in north latitude 74" 30', 

 which is entirely composed of secondary rocks, horizontally stra- 

 tified, and cut perpendicularly on the coast into cUfFs. The 

 rocks are principally sandstone and limestone. The limestone 

 abounds in petrified sea-shells, and in the sandstone he discover- 

 ed a bed of coal from two to four feet thick. Further to the 

 north, the depth of the sea is so inconsiderable and uniform, 

 that the seamen, after seeing the horizontal strata of Cherry 

 Island, conclude that they continue on their course northward, 

 to sail over the horizontal basis of Cherry Island, over beds 

 which are visible on Hope Island, and the Archipelago of the 

 TJwusand Islands. These beds are said to be of a soft blackish 

 clay-slate. The Thousand Islands lie off East Spitzbergen. 

 Here there is a lofty extensive table- land very steep towards the 

 sea. Already at the distance of half a degree of latitude, a ho- 

 rizontal stratification is announced by a layer of snow, resting 



