NO. 2.] PAL^EO-GEOGRAPHICAL REMARKS. 141 



Concerning the extent of the Bajocian sea in the polar regions, we 

 can at present say but little. Whether it extended to the Greenland coast 

 of the nearctic continent, and perhaps had its most westerly offshoots in the 

 Dogger of Kuhn fsland, cannot yet be settled. Up to the present we possess 

 no clue as to whether, or how, the arctic Bajocian sea, of which the present 

 Cape Flora was a part, was connected with the Bajocian (?) sea of the North 

 American arctic archipelago. 



Besides the existence of an arctic Bajocian sea, we can only prove the 

 existence of arctic Bajocian continents, without being able to determine their 

 border. The north of the Eurasian continent extended into the polar regions, 

 as did also the north-east of the nearctic continent. It follows from the lit- 

 toral facies and fauna of the Bajocian at Cape Flora, that a coast must have 

 existed near this region, there must have been a continent in the vicinity 

 of Cape Flora. 



Our knowledge of the geology of Spitzbergen leads to the supposition 

 that in Bajocian times this group of islands was not covered by the sea. 



The oldest Jurasic deposits of Spitzbergen hitherto known, are Aucella- 

 strata with Cardioceras Nathorsti Lundgr. sp. 1 [= Upper Oxfordian]. From 

 Novaja Semlja older marine Jura deposits than Aucella strata are not known. 

 Both Spitzbergen and Novaja Semlja were mainland in Bajocian times. They 

 were probably connected with the Scandinavian-Russian part of the Eurasian 

 continent, and were probably also connected with one another by continuous 

 land. Probably the arctic sea of the Bajocian flowed to the north and west 

 of this offshoot of the Eurasian continent, which extended into the region of 

 south Franz Josef Land. 



The identification of Bajocian in the region of Cape Flora is impor- 

 tant, because it helps to reduce the great difference which, from what we 

 knew hitherto, appeared to exist between the extent of the Callovian sea, 

 and that of the older Jura seas. This takes us on a step, if only a small 

 one, in the recognition that in the distribution of sea and land upon the 

 earth, the same state of equilibrium was maintained in the older Jura 

 periods, as that with which we are aquainted from the Callovian period. 



After proving the existence of the Callovian in the south of Franz Josef 

 Land archipelago, the extent of the Callovian is increased by nearly 10 degrees 



1 According to "a letter from Prof. Nathorst, dated Decbr. 17, 1898. 



