22 Pfof^ A. E. Norde7is'kidld — Geology of Spitzbergen. 



This is probably a fresb-water formation deposited in a lake which 

 stretched from the interior of Ice Sound over the south of Wijde Bay 

 and Liefde Bay northwards. 



IV. The Carboniferous Formation. — This period is represented in 

 Spitzbergen by three divisions, namely : A. The Lower Mountain Lime- 

 stone. B. The Mountain Limestone proper. C. The Uj^per Coal 

 Formation. 



A. The Loiver Mountain Limestone (^' Ursa- stage"). — These strata 

 occur most developed on Bear Island, whose geological phenomena 

 were examined by me in 1868, and later were described in an ap- 

 pendix to the treatise (Fossile Flora der Baren Insel von Osw. Heer, 

 Vet. Akad. Handl. V. 9, No. 5, 1871, s. 25) in which Heer describes 

 the vegetable impressions found in these strata. ^ 



From the researches which have since been made by Nathorst 

 and Wilander in Ice Sound, it appears that the stratum named 

 Russian Island dolomite, which, in the paper referred to, I con- 

 sidered to belong to the lowermost division of the Carboniferous 

 formation of Spitzbergen, in fact lies between the Coal-bearing sand- 

 stone and the Cyatliophyllum Limestone, and that thus the Coal-bear- 

 ing sandstone forms the lowest link of the formation, provided the 

 Liefde Bay strata placed in the foregoing division be not also referred 

 to this one. 



This division consists on Bear Island of : 



1. (Lowermost) A hard, wliite, quartzite-like sandstone, with, marks of the action 



of waves. 



2. An irregular, darker sandstone layer with band of coal, 2*5 — 0-1 metre. 



3. White, hard, and compact sandstone, without vegetable impressions, 3 metres. 



4. Grey, pretty loose sandstone, 1-2 metre. 



5. Sandstone with band of slate, about 0-5 metre. 



6. Clay-slate with beautiful vegetable impressions and nodules of clay-ironstone, 



1"2 metre, 



7. Coal with baud of clay- slate and numerous vegetable impressions, 3*5 metres. 



8. Sandstone with stems of Calamites, of which a part stand upright and are of con- 



siderable size, 6 metres. 



The same strata occur also in Ice and Bell Sounds, although, as far 

 as is hitherto known, less developed than on Bear Island. 



In Bell Sound several vegetable impressions, probably belonging 

 to this formation, were already discovered by Robert, and delineated, 

 though not recognizably, in the great work on the voyage of the 

 Recherche ; "^ according to the determination by Robert the vegetable 

 impressions delineated are those of a Lepidodendron and a SigiUaria 

 or Calamites. Robert, however, fell into the mistake of referring the 

 whole of the overljdng series of Tertiary strata to the Coal-forma- 

 tion. In the year 1873 I too had the good fortune to find on the 

 north shore of Bell Sound, on an island situated a little outside 

 Axel's Islands, a sandstone with numerous ill-preserved impressions 

 of Calamites and Knorria ; opportunity however was wanting for a 

 stay sufficiently long for a close examination. It is, however, prob- 



^ See Dr. Oswald Heer's paper " On the Carboniferous Flora of Bear Island (lat- 

 74^ 30' 2s\)," Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond. 1872, vol. xxviii. pp. 161-173, pi. iv 



'^ Voyages en Scandinavie en Laponie au Spitzberg, etc. Atlas Geologique, 19' 

 Paleontologie de la rade de Bellsound. 



