16 Prof. A, E. Nordenskwld — Geology of Spitzbergen. 



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III. — Sketch of the Geology of Ice Sound and Bell Sound, 



Spitzbergen. 

 By Professor A. E. Nordenskiold, of Stockholm. 



ICE and Bell Sounds are two large fiords opening w 

 out on the west coast of Spitzbergen, whicli cut 

 deep into the country, both in an easterly direction 

 towards Stor Fiord, and in a northerly direction to- 

 wards the south part of Wijde Bay. The shores of 

 the Sounds are for the most part occupied by high 

 mountains, precipitous towards the sea, nearly free 

 from snow during the summer, whose sides, being 

 bare of vegetation, offer the observer an uncommonly 

 favourable opportunity for studying the geological 

 structure of the rocks. Within an exceedingly limited 

 space one meets here with a succession of strata be- 

 longing to a great many different geological periods, 

 and rich in fossils, both of the vegetable and animal 

 kingdom. The geographical situation, too, confers on 

 the fossil organisms met with in these regions an alto- 

 gether special importance in relation to the questions 

 of the former climate of the Polar countries, of the 

 former distribution of land on the globe, and others 

 of the weightiest problems of geology. These circum- 

 stances render this region, now so neglected, one of 

 the most interesting spots in a geological point of 

 view on the globe ; and it was on this account that all 

 the Swedish Polar Expeditions remained for a longer \tt 

 or shorter time in these Sounds, and examined their ^ 

 geology more thoroughly than has perhaps been done 

 in the case of any other Polar country. A brief state- 

 ment of the results thus obtained forms the subject of 

 the present paper. 



An ideal section of Spitzbergen from east to west 

 presents an appearance approximating to that shown 

 in the accompanying figure. (Fig. 1.) ! A 11 *? 



The west coast from South Cape to King's Bay is 

 formed of sedimentary strata standing vertically. 

 Farther into the interior, as far as to the east side of 

 Stor Fiord, the strata, with some local exceptions, be- 

 come more or less horizontal, although it is just in 

 these regions that extensive beds and masses of un- 

 stratified rocks occur in greatest abundance. The 

 dip and contortion of the strata it is evident do not 

 stand in any immediate connexion with the outburst 

 of plutonic rocks. The numerous fiords also in most 

 cases are nearly at right angles to the direction of the 

 strata at the coast, which shows that these basins were 

 not formed in connexion with those changes of level 

 which disturbed the original horizontal lie of the 

 strata. If we carefully examine the shores of the 



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