The marine Carboniferous of North-east Greenl. and its Brachiopod Fauna. 597 



as far as the matrix is concerned, has a great resemblance to the 

 FusuHna limestone of Spitzbergen, but, among the smaller fossil 

 remains, contains fairly numerous fragments of echinoderms, mostly 

 crinoid stem-joints, but only some few Fusulinœ. As regards the 

 conclusions reached by Staff and Wedekind (1909, pp. 84 — 86), I 

 merely wish to point out that, in general, they ascribe to the Fusn- 

 linœ "ein benthonisches Flachseeleben" and that they suppose the 

 Fusulina limestone to have been deposited in shallow sea-bays, or la- 

 goons, with comparatively quiet waters, having little connection with 

 the open sea, and possessing a maximum depth of about 60 — 80 metres. 



The Cyathophyllum limestone is covered by the exceedingly fos- 

 siliferous Spirifer limestone, which is specially distinguished by its 

 brachiopod fauna, which Wiman (1914, p, 88), compares with the 

 Schwagerina horizon of Russia. The strata referred to the Spirifer 

 limestone are far from possessing the thickness of the Cyathophyllum 

 limestone. The Spirifer limestone proper is about 10 metres thick, 

 and Wiman reckons together with this 20 to 30 metres of other 

 rocks; on Beeren Eiland, Andersson estimates the thickness of the 

 Spirifer limestone at 71 metres. According to Wiman, the Spirifer 

 limestone is a shallow water, or litoral formation (litoral = that 

 space within which the surf exercises its influence), and almost 

 always contains grains of sand and, sometimes beds of conglomerate 

 in which brachiopod shells are included as pebbles. In the same 

 лvay, the brachiopod shells are often more or less rolled. 



It is not possible to make any definite, close comparison between 

 the Spirifer limestone and the rocks in the Carboniferous formations 

 of North-east Greenland, even if there exists a fairly great exterior 

 resemblance between certain of the specimens found free-lying at 

 the Mallemukfjæld and at Eskimo Naze. That rock especially which 

 occurs at Lovén's Mountain (Spitzbergen) is represented among the 

 boulders collected at the localities mentioned. 



In Spitzbergen, the youngest part of the formations referred to 

 the Carboniferous system, or, more definitely, the Permo-Carboni- 

 ferous, are the siliceous rocks containing Productus. These are cor- 

 related to the Russian Arta stage, and represent a very considerable 

 thickness; Holtedahl (1912, p. 41) gives very varying figures, from 

 a minimum of 170 metres up to about 500 metres. It is impossible 

 to decide with certainty whether this horizon is represented in North- 

 east Greenland, Among the loose boulders found at the Mallemuk- 

 fjæld and at Eskimo Naze, some few were discovered that, petro- 

 logically, agreed fairly well with the Prorfuc/u.s-bearing, flint-like 

 rocks of Spitzbergen, but they contained so few fossils that a com- 

 parison could lead to no result. This seems to be a reason to refer 



