On the Geology of Cherry Island and Spitzhergen. 145 



on a black wall of rock. On approaching towards the west side 

 of Stansforeland, between 77° and 78° N., the lowest bed at a 

 distance appears to be basalt. It proved to be a coarse granu- 

 lar trap-rock; split by means of vertical rents into imperfect 

 columns. This bed forms a flat extent of coast, about ten miles 

 and a quarter broad, and fort^'-one miles long, and is the base 

 or fundamental rock of an alternation of fine granular sand- 

 stone, an arenaceous marl-slate, compact siliceous limestone, 

 and frequent repetitions of the trap-rock. Organic remains 

 were not discovered either in the sandstone or limestone. This 

 same formation appears to extend to north latitude 80°, and 

 probably forms the greater part, if not the whole, of East Spitz- 

 bergen. It is true some boulders were met with, which point at 

 primitive rocks, viz. a rounded mass of gneiss. But these boul- 

 ders may have come from West Spitzbergen, which furnishes a 

 great primitive chain. 



An interesting deposit of shell-clay was observed at Stansfore- 

 land, in which the shells {bivalves) were of the same kind as found 

 in a similar clay in the southern parts of Norway. This depo- 

 site extends onwards nine miles and a half from the shore, and 

 rises one hundred feet above the present level of the sea. The 

 heaps of whalebones found at a considerable height on the 

 Thousand Islands may stand in connexion with this appear- 

 ance. 



The primitive rocks of West Spitzbergen appear at the 

 South Cape in lat. 76^°. They are mica-slate, with numerous 

 beds of quartz. In Horn Sound and Bell Sound these rocks 

 form the high land ; and, to judge from the form of the moun- 

 tains, these or other primitive rocks ascend higher on the west 

 coast. The primitive rocks, where examined at the South Cape, 

 were perpendicular, with a direction from N. E. to S. W. To- 

 wards the east, lay a formation over the very limited primitive 

 district, which certainly belonged to that of Stansforeland. 



A new formation occurs westward along the sea-coast, in 

 fiords, under the high chain, and in small flat islands, which lie 

 in front of the coast. . There appears to be but feeble traces of 

 the transition period, but more evident symptoms of secondary 

 deposites. In the year 1826, sea-horse fishers from Fmnmark 

 brought sixty tons of coal from Eissund, in north lat. 78". 



O(T0BKR DKCEMBEU 1829. K 



