NO. 2.] GEOLOGICAL SKETCH BY NANSEN. H 



Comparatively few fossils were actually found in situ. Many more were 

 found lying loose on the surface of the clay exposures, evidently weathered, 

 or washed out of the clay near the place where they were lying. They could 

 not, at any rate, have been carried very far. 



A good many fossils, however, mostly enclosed in fragments of the stone 

 nodules, were found lying loose on the talus at all heights, from the base up- 

 wards, and scattered among the basaltic debris. These fossils had evidently 

 fallen from above, or had been carried down by water, or avalanches from 

 some place higher up, where they had originally been washed out of the clay. 

 They were found especially at, or near the water-courses. 



Beginning from below, I will mention the principal localities where ex- 

 posures of the Jurassic strata were examined, or where fossils were found. 



1. Lowest horizon 710 metres (2333 feet) above sea level. Fig. 1, a, b. 

 (a) Along the bank of the raised beach upon which Elmwood is situated 

 the stratified deposits are exposed from sea-level to 12 or 15 metres (40 or 

 50 feet) above it, and from a place a few hundred metres south-east of 

 Elmwood, to more than that distance north-west of it. Some 300 metres 

 north-west of Elmwood, there was a narrow ravine or gully, cut 

 by a watercourse into these strata (fig. l,a; fig. 3, a). The sides of 

 this ravine had just been thawed out when I examined the place on August 

 2 nd ' 1896. In the bank on its northern side, and just above the shore, 

 between 7 and 10 metres (23 and 33 feet) above sea-level, I found various 

 fossils, all of which were in situ. 



In my diary, there is the following entry on the subject of this find: 



n Sunday, August 2 nd , 1896. Collected some shells and belemnites in 



the clay deposits about 3040 feet (?) above the shore. Knocked off several 



pieces of stone with impressions of shells from two nodules of n clay- 



stone" 1 (with rounded edges), which were embedded in the clay." 



I may add to this description that some of the fossils, shells and be- 

 lemnites, were lying on the surface, half embedded in the clay, or protrud- 

 ing from it, the surface having been comparatively recently exposed; 

 for it was evident that small landslips would be constantly falling into 



1 According to Pompeckj's description, it is n hard, gray or dark gray, finely grained, 

 sandy marl"' (see below chap II). 



