THE JOi'RNEY SOUTHWARD 553 



about 500 or 600 feet the land consisted of a soft clay 

 mixed with lumps of a red-brown clay sandstone, in which 

 lumps the fossils chiefly abounded. But the earth was 

 so overstrewn with loose stones, which had rolled down 

 from the basalt walls above, that it was dif^cult to reach 

 it. For a long time I maintained that all this clay was 

 only a comparatively late strand formation ; but the 

 doctor was indefatigable in his efforts to convince me 

 that it really was an old and very extensive formation, 

 stretching right under the superimposed basalt. At last 

 I had to yield, when we arrived at the topmost stratum 

 of the clay and I saw it actually going under the basalt, 

 and found some shallower strata of basalt lower down in 

 the clay. An examination of the fossils, which consisted 

 for the most part of ammonites and belemnites, convinced 

 me that the whole of this clay formation must date from 

 theur Jassic period. At several places Dr. Koetlitz had 

 found thin strata of coal in the clay. Petrified wood was 

 also of common occurrence. But over the clay forma- 

 tion lay a mighty bed of basalt 600 or 700 feet in 

 height, which was certainly not the least interesting feat- 

 ure of the country. It was distinguished by its coarse- 

 grained structure from the majority of t}pical basalts, 

 and seemed to be closely related to those which are 

 found in Spitzbergen and Northeast Land.'^ The ba- 

 salt, however, seems to vary a good deal in appeai'ance 



* Where they are irenerallv called diabases. 



