306 



PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS ! PAL/liONTOLOGY. 



The Punta Arenas section (Ortmann, 1898, p. 481) has been mentioned 

 twice before in literature. First Mallard and Fuchs (1873, p. 67, ff.) 

 have given a profile taken at 6-7 kilometers from Punta Arenas on the 

 left bank of the river (Rio de las Minas). There does not seem to be 

 any agreement with Mr. Hatcher's observations, but the fact that these 

 writers mention at the base of their section, a glauconitic sand, which 

 contains " Ostrea patagonica" and a large Pectuncuhis (= Gtycimeris], 

 renders it beyond doubt that this bed corresponds to Hatcher's horizon 

 V, which consists of a dark green sand containing a .large oyster (O. 

 ingens] associated with a large Pectnnculns (Glycimeris ibari}. Thus 

 Mallard and Fuchs' section begins just where Hatcher's section ends. 



A second time this section has been mentioned by Nordenskjoeld (1898, 

 p. 24, footnote). His account agrees fairly well with Hatcher's, and the 

 comparison is as follows (beginning at the top) : 



The plant remains of our horizons I and IV have been described by 

 Dusen from the collections made by the Swedish expedition (Dusen, 1899). 

 He provisionally refers the upper Lignites (horizon IV ; slmucaria-beds) 

 to the Miocene, and the horizon I (Faults-beds) ! to the Oligocene (p. 93), 

 although it may be Eocene (p. 91). 



1 1 have been able to identify some of the plant remains collected by Hatcher in horizon I, 

 namely, Fagus subferruginea Dus. (p. 94), Nothofagus variabilis forma inicropliylla Dus. (p. 97), 

 and others, which are identical with forms mentioned by Dusen from the Fagus beds of Punta 

 Arenas. This establishes beyond doubt the identity of our horizon I and the "Fagus beds" of 

 Dusen. 



