THE DEPOSITS OF THE SEA-BOTTOM. 



39 



rocks, and partly granulite or halleflinte. Such rocks have been found in several of the 

 Greenland specimens, and in a couple of specimens near the Faroe Islands. In one speci- 

 men, no. 143, north of the Faroe Islands, they form the prominent part of the material; 

 here the rock gets more or less resemblance to quartzite or sandstone, and all the pieces 

 are, perhaps, better taken to be quartzite, even if the presence of larger grains of quartz 

 and feldspar seems to imply that also eruptive rocks must be found in the neighbourhood. 



Quartzite has otherwise only been found in three specimens between Iceland and Greenland, and 

 southwest of Iceland, and plays no prominent part in any of them. 



Sandstone has been found in 13 specimens distributed over the whole area without any especially 

 characteristic distribution, often only in a few rather small pieces; of a few specimens it 

 forms, however, a greater part, as of no. 13, where a comparatively very large piece is found, 

 which can hardly be supposed to have been carried there in any other way than by means 

 of the ice, as must also be the case with the granite of the same specimen. In the two 

 specimens from the east coast of Greenland, nos. 13 and 92, a rather large number of grains 

 of sandstone is found which is likely to have its origin from the place itself, as also the 

 fine-grained rocks of the same specimens that are rich in quartz; sandstone to a rather large 

 amount is also found in specimen no. 143 north of the Faroe Islands together with other 

 fine-grained rocks. 



Mica -schist is, of course, only with difficulty to be distinguished with certainty in very small pieces 

 from pieces of gneiss, granite, and the like rocks containing much mica ; muscovite-schist has 

 been noted in four specimens, as well near Greenland as southeast of Iceland; the dark 

 variety has only been observed in specimen 32, west of Greenland. Both parts have only 

 been found in a few pieces, and are only of small interest. 



Clay mica-schist has been observed in a couple of specimen, one, no. 32, at the west coast of Green- 

 land, the other, no. 143, north of the Faroe Islands; as the preceding rock it is only of 

 small interest 



Clay-slate has been found in 9 specimens, mostly near Greenland, and only in small amount: an 

 exception from this rule is formed by specimen no. 105, east of Iceland, in which the chief 

 part of the ingredients is formed by a grayish clay-slate; if it has not its origin from the 

 sea-bottom itself, it can hardly have been transported there in any other way than by ice- 

 bergs either from Greenland or Spitzbergen, and the single small pieces must originally 

 have been coherent, and only later have crumbled to pieces. 



Lime-stone has only been found in one single piece in specimen no. 105, east of Iceland, a light 

 gray, compact variety the origin of which could not at all be determined. 



This account of the single minerals and rocks will have shown that, with a few exceptions, 

 especially one fact is of more interest with regard to the distribution, and that is, how far the vol- 

 canic ingredients from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Jan Mayen have spread on the sea-bottom^ 

 and in what manner, when we pass farther out, they are thinned more and more, and mingled with 

 quartz-material, till at last they completely disappear in this. To elucidate this fact I have, on the 



