378 &. I. Murchison on the Arctic Regions. 
of being used for fuel or other purposes, which exist in the inte- 
rior, and on the high grounds of large islands in latitudes where 
the dwarf willow is now the only living shrub. 
Before L allude to this phenomenon, as brought to my notice 
by Capt. M‘Clure and Lieut. Pim, I would, however, briefly 
advert to a few rock specimens collected by the latter officer in 
Beechey Island, Bathurst Land, Eglinton Island, Melville Island, 
Prince Patrick’s Island, and Banks’s Land, where he joied Capt. 
M‘Clure,—specimens which we ought to value highly, seeing 
that they were saved from loss under very trying circumstances. 
From this collection, as well as from other sources to whieh I 
have had access, as derived from the voyages of Parry, Franklin, 
Back, Petny, Inglefield, and the recent work of Dr. T. Sutherland, 
Iam led to believe that the oldest fossiliferous rock of the Arctic 
region is the upper Silurian, viz., a limestone identical in compo- 
sition and organic contents with the well-known rocks of Wen- 
lock, Dudley, and Gothland. 
No clear evidence has been offered as to the existence of 
Devonian rocks, though we have heard of red and brownish 
sandstone, as observed in very many localities by various explo- 
rers, and which possibly may belong to that formation. ‘Thus, 
in North Somerset, to the south of Barrow Straits, red sandstone 
is associated with the older limestone. Byam Martin Island was 
described by Parry as essentially composed of sandstone, with 
some granitic and feldspathic rocks; and, whilst the northeastern 
face of Banks’s Land is sandstone, its northwestern cliffs consist 
(as made known by Capt. M‘Clure) of limestone. But whilst in 
the fossils we have keys to the age of the Silurian rocks, we have 
as yet no adequate grounds whereon to form a rational conjecture 
as to the presence of the Old Red Sandstone, or Devonian 
defined by the survey of Capt. Kellet and his officers, we see 
concretions of greenstone, associated with siliceons or qnartzose 
rocks and coarse ferruginous grits; and in Princess Royal Island, 
besides the characteristic Silurian limestones, there are blac 
basalts and red jaspers, as well as red rocks, less altered by heat, 
so proeured by Lieut. Pim from the northwestern shore 
Melville Island. In the collection before us we see silicified 
but showing a passage into jasper. Highly crystalline gypsum 
