NO. 2.] PREVIOUS LITERATURE. 43 



beds of stratified rocks in the southern part of Franz Josef Land. These 

 beds are "succeeded by strata of purely marine origin the age of which can 

 be plainly stated" (according to Newton's determinations) by the occurrence of 

 Amm. macrooephalus and modiolaris. As evidence of frequent oscillations 

 of sea-level during Jurassic times, Dr. Koettlitz points out "the extraordinary 

 number of different-coloured thin strata of clay, shale and sand, the last- 

 named being often false-bedded, and frequently having many rounded, water- 

 worn pebbles of all kinds embedded among it". 



Unfortunately too few references to exact localities are given in this sketch. 

 The occurrence of plants in the lower strata of the sedimentary formation in 

 the southern part of Franz Josef Land is probably to be referred to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cape Stephen (southern side of Alexandra Land) the Jurassic 

 age of which is not definitely determined (vide above). The very frequent 

 changes in the petrographic structure of the various layers seem, according 

 to Newton's statements, which were based upon previous communications from 

 Dr. Koettlitz, to point more especially to the neighbourhood of Cape Gertrude, 

 east of Cape Flora, and to the bank 1040 feet above the shore, just south 

 of Elmwood; cf. p. 12, "lowest horizon 1 6". The strata with ammonites 

 (belemnites, pectens and avicula-remains) must occur at Cape Flora itself. 



The basalt covering the Jurassic sediments in a thickness of 500600 

 feet, does not, at Cape Flora, according to Dr. Koettlitz, appear as a homoge- 

 neous mass; it is rather composed of a series of separate layers (tiers) "to 

 the number of seven or eight or more". Between these separate tiers "one 

 can frequently find thin layers or strata of clay and sandstone, generally from 

 1, 2 to 4 feet in thickness, similar in every respect to those one finds under- 

 neath". "In one of these strata, between the second and third tier, and a 

 hundred feet or more above the lower edge of the basalt formation", Dr. 

 Koettlitz found fossil plants similar to those which he and Dr. Nansen collec- 

 ted on the north side of Cape Flora, on the isolated basalt-rock ("Nunatak") 

 protruding from the glacier. Dr. Koettlitz supposes that he has here found in 

 situ the horizon of the plants identified by Prof. Nathorst as Upper Jurassic 

 (White Jura) 1 . 



1 Cf. ' Geological Sketch of Cape Flora and its neighbourhood' by Fridtjof Nansen, pp. 

 2124. This sketch, which Prof. Nansen has kindly added to the present paper, con- 

 tains the newest statements of the geological structure of Cape Flora, and thus it 

 supplements in every way the previous work done in the geology of Cape Flora. 



