NA TURE 



\_/u,ie 26, i ! 



and unexpected type of vertebra, a pelvis with all the bones 

 co-ossified as in existing birds, and a set of osseous dermal plates 

 extending from the base of the skull along the neck over the 

 vertebrae. 



Geological Survey of New Zealand. — Dr. Hector's 

 Report for 1882 has just been received. It contains some addi- 

 tions to our knowledge of the geological structure of the country, 

 but these do not involve any marked alterations in the system of 

 classification already adopted for the formations, but rather tend 

 to establish its general applicability. The Report is specially 

 characterised by the attention paid to the development of the 

 mineral resources of the colony. Mr. S. H. Cox, in compliance 

 with specific instructions, made a careful examination of the 

 gold-fields of the Cape Colville Peninsula and of other mineral 

 tracts, while Mr. A. McKay reported on some antimony and 

 ither lodes. The geology, petrography, and palaeontology of 

 the islands have likewise received attention. The schists of the 

 Reefton district are regarded as a metamorphic series of Silurian 

 age, as they can be traced into fossiliferous Silurian strata. The 

 granite-porphyries by which they are traversed were intruded 

 into them subsequent to the Devonian rocks. The metamorphic 

 -.eries is covered in some places by the Devonian beds, from 

 which fossils have been obtained at a number of new localities. 

 The auriferous rocks of Reefton are referred to the Matai or 

 Carboniferous formation, and are believed to lie unconformably 

 on the younger Devonian rocks. The Cretaceous and Cretaceo- 

 Tertiary series form a continuous sequence in which coal has 

 long been known to occur. Seams of coal, four to ten feet thick 

 on an average, characterise certain horizons, one seam at the 

 head of the Murray Creek reaching even to thirty or forty feet. 

 The coarse sandstones and grits among which the coals lie are 

 represented as being conformably overlaid by Miocene gravels. 



The Austrian Geological Institute. — This admirable 

 organisation, under the energetic management of its Director, 

 F. Ritter von Hauer, shows no sign of any diminution in its 

 activity or of any lessening of the wide scope of its labours. 

 Among the recent numbers of its VerhauJlungen some interest- 

 ing papers have appeared, of which may be mentioned : A. 

 Bittner, on the Limestone Alps of Salzburg ; E. Tietze, on the 

 occurrence of turquois in Persia ; V. Hilber, on the geology of 

 the region between Krzyzanowice and Tarnobrzeg ; D. Stur, on 

 some fossil plants from South Wales ; A. Bdhm, on geo- 

 isothermal lines under mountains. The last two numbers of 

 the yahrbuch are full of important memoirs. Among these 

 .reference may be made to Bittner's Report on the survey of the 

 Triassic region of Recoaro ; Paul's " Recent Additions to our 

 Knowledge of the Carpathian Sandstone " ; Dr. Tietze 's essay 

 on the geology of Montenegro, and the continuation of his con- 

 tributions to the geology of Gallicia. 



ON NORTH ERA' NORWAY UNDER THE 

 GLACIAL AGE 

 ^pHE Stream of Inland Ice. — From the broad sound be- 

 tween the Kval Island and the province of Finmarken, 

 from which the Troms Island juts forth, the Kval Sound — 

 about 20 km. in length — leads to the open ocean. Outside the 

 Kval Sound several little islands rise from the sea, while beyond 

 the coast is girded by holms and rocks termed the " Skjaer- 

 gaard." A little south of the Troms Island the Balsfjord, 

 about 60 km. in length, cuts into the land, closed at the bottom 

 by small ridges leading up to the valley in which the 

 Maals River flows, and to the borderland between Norway and 

 Sweden, chiefly through the long Divi Valley. The borderland 

 embraces large mountainous tracts, where peaks rise to an eleva- 

 tion of 1569 m., crossed by dales and high valleys. 



In the district described, the local conditions during the 

 Glacial age seem to have been remarkably suited to the forma- 

 tion of large masses of ice. These would have their natural 

 outlet towards the Maals River, through the Divi Valley, and the 

 main stream has no doubt therefrom flown down the Maals 

 Valley, but an arm may have curved more to the north along the 

 northern slope of the Mauken ridge, and by ice-streams from 

 this and from the gigantic high plateaux around the Maar peaks 

 down to the bottom of the Balsfjord. From here the joint 

 stream would have moved further forward to the sounds along 

 both sides of the Troms Island, and thence, through the Kval 

 Sound, over the islands in the Skjaergaard. The channel de- 



ribed has a length of 215 km. 



As is generally known, the inland ice of Scandinavia is 

 assumed to have shot far beyond the edges of the peninsula. 

 Thus from Southern Norway the inland ice is believed to have 

 moved forward along the fjords, and filled the entire North 

 Sea as far as England, while further north it has been curved in a 

 more northerly direstion, by the ice-streams issuing from Scotland, 

 towards the Orkneys and the Shttlands. It might be supposed 

 that similar conditions existed during the Glacial period in the 

 north of Norway ; but from what is known at present there is 

 nothing indicating that the Glacial age has appeared in a more 

 severe form in the southern than in the northern part of Nor- 

 way ; it seems, in fact, from the geographical situation of the 

 land, that the reverse must have been the case. There are be- 

 sides, as I will presently show, indications which seem to 

 demonsirate that the ice-masses of the Glacial age, at all events 

 in certain parts of Northern Norway, have attained an extent 

 which equals those of Southern Norway, as, for instance, those 

 along the Sognefjord, 1700 m. to 1800 m. in depth. On the 

 high plateau behind the Divi Valley, close to the frontier, the 

 cone of the Great Jerta, built of amphibolitic slate, rises to a 

 height of 1569 m. Nowhere have granite strata been found 

 intercepting this slate. On the top of this peak a large travelled 

 granite block was found, which in most probability has been 

 transported thither from the extensive granite field which stretches 

 forward on both sides of the frontier. The ice which has moved 

 down the Divi Valley must therefore have been very nearly 

 1600 m. in depth. 



There seems every reason to suppose that the channel from the 

 bottom of the Balsfjord to the Skjisrgaard has, during the 

 Glacial age, boasted a comparatively uniform depth ; and, sup- 

 posing the sea to have been about 188 m. higher than at present, 

 this channel would nowhere have been deeper than 470 m. An 

 ice-stream moving forward by this channel, and which pro- 

 bably had a thickness of i6com., must have moved forward 

 along its bottom, and most probably with a quick motion. If 

 the ice-streams from the south-west of Norway have, as assumed, 

 moved forward, and fi led not only the fjords to the bottom, but 

 the entire North Sea to England, we may conclude that this 

 should also have been the case in the channel in question during 

 the Glacial period. If this has been so, maiked traces of such 

 an ice-stream would, no doubt, have been visible from the very 

 bottom of the Balsfjord right out to the Skjasrgaard ; but the 

 researches made here point in a different direction. I will eluci- 

 date this by following the channel refeired to from the ocean 

 coastwards. 



About 11 km. from the mouth of the Kval Sound, in the open 

 ocean, lies the little Ris Island, surrounded on south, west, and 

 north by a great number of tiny islands, reaching a height of 

 loom. It is formed of a ridge running north to south, in the 

 west sinking abrrptly into the sea, but which in the east sinks 

 into a low -lying plain, from which several isolated knolls spring 

 forth. Several of these knolls are connected with the main 

 island by sand dunes, and have most probably at no distant 

 time formed separate holms. Most of the numerous holms 

 surrounding the Ris Island are small, and only rise a few feet 

 above the water. The mineral of which this group of islands is 

 formed is a hard kind of gneiss, greatly interspersed with granite 

 more or less pure ; the mineral is, in fact, with its petro 

 graphical variations and forms, rather to be considered a kind of 

 granite-gneiss, a name which is given to it in these parts. The 

 strike of the granite strata is, ruughly speaking, north to south, 

 with a sudden dip to the east. By its structural condition this 

 mineral should be greatly affected by smoothing and polishing 

 agencies, and also retain the traces of such. Should, there- 

 fore, the inland ice at a certain period have moved forward along 

 the Kval Sound, the group of islands around the Ris Island 

 would undoubtedly bear the most patent indications of this 

 action. The polishing phenomena are often met w ith at lower 

 levels, which either lie within the littoral belt, at high tide under 

 the sea, or rise only a few feet above high tide, but with the sea 

 continually washing over them. At higher elevations these 

 phenomena are rarely discovered. Here severe destructive 

 forces have been at work on the previou ly polished surfaces, 

 and the numerous sea-birds breeding on these islands have 

 further contributed to the corrosion. 



Several circumstances seem, however, to indicate that the 

 polishing in question cannot be referred to the scourings of the 

 ice in the Glacial period, but is of a far later date. The rapid 

 destruction seems in fact to demonstrate that the smoothing 

 must be referred to agencies of shorter duration. The smooth 



