226 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



MESOZOIC. 



The discovery of the Sverdrup group of islands has greatly 

 extended our knowledge of the Mesozoic rocks of the Arctic 

 basin. The Franklin search parties discovered rocks of this age 

 on the northern shores of the Parry islands ; at Point Wilkie, 

 in Prince Patrick island; Rendezvous Hill, near the north- 

 western extreme of Bathurst island and at Exmouth island and 

 places in the vicinity, near the northwest part of North Devon. 

 The explorations from the Fram now show that these are but 

 the southern edge of a wide basin of these rocks which form the 

 islands of King Oscar, Ellef and Amund Ringes, while they 

 constitute the lowlands of Axel Heiberg and the western shores 

 of Ellesmere along both sides of Eureka sound. There they 

 consist largely of sandstones with shales, schists and limestones. 



As before stated, Schei hints that their eastern extension to 

 the shores of Kennedy channel may be marked by the tilted and 

 folded strata, classed by De Ranee as the Cape Rawson Series, 

 of supposed Cambrian age. 



TERTIARY. 



Deposits containing fossil wood were discovered by M'Clin- 

 tock, M'Clure and Armstrong in the southwestern part of 

 Prince Patrick island and on the northwest side of Banks 

 island. 



( At Ballast beach, on Banks land, large quantities of fossil 

 and sub-fossil wood occur, which Prof. Heer refers to the Mio- 

 cene in his Flora Fossilis Arctica, in which the following 

 species are described by Cramer: Pinus MacClurii, Pinus 

 Armstrongs, Cupressinoxylon pulchrum, Cupressinoxylon poly- 

 ommatum, Cupressinoxylon dubium, Betula M'Clintockii. 



In many places along the western side of Ellesmere, in the 

 depressions between the mountains, thick deposit^ of sand with 

 embedded strata of lignite were found. Similar deposits were 



