I. 



PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF THE GEOLOGICAL INVESTI- 

 GATIONS MADE DURING THE SECOND NORWEGIAN 

 POLAR EXPEDITION IN THE 'FRAM.' 



BY P. SCHEI. 



OUR knowledge of the geology of the North-American Archipelago is 

 derived from occasional observations made during expeditions with 

 some especial object, most of these observations being from the 

 Franklin Search Expeditions. 



Limited as were thus the opportunities for research, matters were 

 still worse when it became a question of transporting the material 

 collected. In more than one place are still lying whole collections got 

 together by interested and energetic discoverers, who in the end were 

 obliged to abandon them because it was impossible to transport them 

 on their already heavily-loaded sledges, manned often by crews devas- 

 tated by sickness ; and they were thus able to convey with them only 

 what could be carried in the pocket (M'Clintoch, Aldrich). 



On the material which was, nevertheless, brought back on many 

 occasions, and was identified by Salter, Haughton, Heer, Ethridge, and 

 many others, is based what knowledge we have of the geology of these 

 tracts. 



On a map compiled by Dawson* are marked, Archaean, Cambrian, 

 Silurian, Devonian, Upper and Lower Carboniferous formations, 

 Jurassic, and Tertiary. It is these formations that were likewise 

 observed in the tracts explored by the ' Fram ' Expedition. 



From the Silurian in the Hayes Sound tracts Cambrian deposits 

 have been separated, while those identified as Cambrian by Dawson are 

 possibly of considerably younger age. In the Silurian of the vicinity 



* ' Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, 1886.' 



NOTE. Discrepancies between the chief sketch and the special sketch in the 

 geological map arise from the fact that the former is a preliminary drawing done 

 while on board, whereas the special sketch has since been worked out with the help 

 of all the later observations, and is thus the more correct of the two. 



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