The marine Carboniferons of North-east Greeiil. and its Brachiopod Fauna. 601 



Timan, he suggests it as possible that the great transgression of the 

 Upper Carboniferous has taken place from Spitzbergen round Green- 

 land to the Arctic North America. 



In his description of the Grant Land fauna, Etheridge has deter- 

 mined and in part, given a detailed account of 12 species of brachiopods, 

 belonging to 5 genera, and also of a number of other fossils, bryozoa; 

 and corals, etc. The age of the fauna he gives as "the Carboniferous 

 limestone" (i. е., most probably the Lower Carboniferous Mountain 

 limestone). It is perhaps unnecessary to deal with Etheridge's deter- 

 mination of the brachiopoda, but, on the other hand, I shall give 

 extracts from three expressions of opinion in this regard which very 

 much question the reliability of his conclusions. Frech (Lethæa, p. 

 401) mentions that Etheridge describes "die ganze in 83° n. Br. 

 gefundene Fauna als aus dem "Carboniferous limestone" stammend. 

 Jedoch muss die grosse Häufigkeit der Bryozoen und die häufige 

 Beziehung auf die Arbeiten Toula's über Spitzbergen Bedenken an 

 der Richtigkeit dieser Anschauung erwecken. 



Von Productiden werden nur solche Arten beschrieben (1. с p. 

 629), welche im Obercarbon vorkommen oder durch ähnliche Muta- 

 tionen vertreten w^erden, während typisch untercarbonische Gestalten 

 wie Prod, gigantens und latissimus fehlen. Besonders wichtig ist 

 auch die Angabe von Prod. Weyprechti Toula (einer Form des 

 obersten Karbon) bei Cap Joseph Henry. Immerhin kann nur eine 

 Revision volle Klarheit über die Horizontierung dieses 'Carboniferous 

 Limestone' bringen". 



Tschernyschew (1902, pp. 693 — 695) expresses himself to the 

 same effect and reproduces the fossil-list of brachiopoda and bryozoa, 

 and declares that this "Fossilienverzeichniss bietet ein Gemisch sol- 

 cher Formen dar, die sich absolut nirgends zusammen vorfinden". 

 He supposes that a want of sufficient material for comparison has 

 been the reason for these determinations, and that a thorough revi- 

 sion would result in other species being determined, "die den in 

 Rede stehenden Kalken ein jüngeres Alter zuschreiben, und zwar das 

 obercarbonische". 



When Whitfield obtained for examination a collection of Car- 

 boniferous brachiopods that the Peary Expedition (1905— 06) brought 

 home from Cape Sheridan, his determinations led to the result that 

 these species were "eminently an expression of an American Coal 

 Measure fauna, according to identifications of the species as usually 

 recognized in this country". On examining the older literature, he, 

 loo, objects to Etheridge's determinations, and compares them with 

 his own opinions respecting the separate species and says, in this 

 connection: "this I do because I cannot agree precisely with Mr. 



