m the extreme North. 95 



Germany and in the Vosgcs. I will notice pavticulavly Cahi- 

 mites radiafuH^ Brongn., Lejndodendron Veltheimiamtm, Sigil- 

 laria distans, and t^tujmaria ficoides ; these are trees which 

 possess no flowers ; but, as i'f to replace these, the bark of 

 these plants is adorned in various ways : the Calamites have 

 regular, parallel longitudinal ribs; the SigiUarice have ele- 

 gant cicatrices arranged in lines, and tlie Lejndodendra re- 

 gular shields wjiidi cover the whole of the stem. Even the 

 roots of the SigiUariw^ which have been named Stigniarue, 

 present this adornment, seeing that the points of attachment 

 of the radicles are indicated by annular prominences. 



None of the plants now in existence can give us an exact 

 idea of the forest which formerly covered Bear Island. Those 

 of our plants which most resemble the Calamites are the 

 Horsetails ; the Lijcopodia are the analogues of the Lepido- 

 dendra : but we must by imagination raise the Horsetails and 

 Lycopodia to the size of trees. With their columnar trunks 

 and their long needle-like leaves collected in tufts at the ex- 

 tremities of their branches, the Sigillarue must have presented 

 a veiy strange appearance. Some species {SigWaria Mahn- 

 greni, S. Canneggiana, and Lepidodendron Wilkii, Heer) are 

 peculiar to Bear Island ; at least they have never yet been 

 found elsewhere. 



But, even within the Carboniferous period, this land sank 

 down again. The beds of coal and the rocks in immediate 

 contact with them are covered by calcareous deposits, Avhich 

 contain numerous marine animals belonging to the same 

 epoch. The Swedish naturalists found an identical limestone 

 with the same marine fossils in the Bell Sound at Sj)itz- 

 bergen. This subsidence probably extended to the whole of 

 the polar zone ; for a perfectly similar phenomenon is presented 

 upon Melville Island. There also a coal is met with in which 

 I discovered the Lejyidodendron {L. Veltheimianum) which we 

 have also made acquaintance with in Bear Island ; and above 

 this Carboniferous formation the Mountain-limestone also 

 occurs. 



The animals that have been found in this limestone, both 

 in Melville and Bear Islands and at Spitzbergen, lead to the 

 same conclusions as the plants. They are for the most part 

 species identical with those which wc tind in Europe in the 

 mountains of the Carboniferous epoch; and some of them iiave 

 occurred in this formation even in India and the south of 

 America. 



Upon the ]\rountain-limcstone at the head of the Ice fiord 

 rests a black schist, in which M. Nordcnskiold discovered a 

 marine fauna belonging to a subsequent period, namely to 



8* 



