66 Prof. A. E. Nordenskwld — Geology of Spitzhergen. 



2. Bed and White Sandstone. — Pretty loose and containing inde- 

 terminable dark spots, probably the remains of sea-plants. Occurs 

 only at the foot of Cape Fanshawe, where it overlies the Eussian 

 Island dolomite and under the following division. Formerly I 

 identified this sandstone, which besides is thought to occur quite 

 locally, with the Bear Island coal-bearing sandstone. 



3. Cyatliopliyllum Limestone. — The above-mentioned sandstone 

 stratum is completely absent in Ice Sound. Instead, the Eussian 

 Island dolomite is overlain by, or more correctlj'^ passes into, a dolo- 

 mite rich in coral stems. The same stratum in Bell Sound immedi- 

 ately succeeds the lower Mountain Limestone ("Ursa stage"). This 

 stratum also contains corals, and in Bell Sound a Euomphalus and 

 remnants and fragments of tests of Crinoids, in Lomme Bay near 

 Cape Fanshawe Brachiopods, which, however, are distinguished from 

 the Brachiopods in the next following divisions by their size being 

 smaller than ordinary. 



4. Spirifer Limestone and Gypsum. — A somewhat loose grey lime- 

 stone (or dolomite?), particularly rich in remains of Spirifer and 

 Brachiopods belonging to allied genera (the genus Productus is here 

 less numerously represented) ; overlies the strata belonging to the 

 preceding division, on the north shore of Bell Sound, right opposite 

 Axel's Islands. In Klaas Billen Bay, again, the Cyatliopliyllum 

 stratum is covered by a stratum of gypsum, generally grey in colour, 

 and infused with nodules of white alabaster, which at first is soft, but 

 hardens when kept dry for some time. Anhydrite is also found in 

 some places in abundance along with the gypsum. On Bear Island 

 and at Hinloopen (where the strata of gypsum are absent), this 

 division is thought to correspond, in the former place, to a stratum 

 of sandstone,^ with Spirifer Keilliaui, Buch, and in the last-mentioned 

 place to a sandstone mixed with limestone, and infused with green 

 specks, and which is particularly rich in large well-preserved Brach- 

 iopods, Productus included. It is probable that there is no true 

 palasontological separation between this division and the following. 



5. Productus Limestone and Flint. — In Ice and Bell Sounds, as well 

 as in Hinloopen, the Spirifer Limestone and gypsum are covered by 

 a stratum of impure limestone rich in silica, or by a black flint, 

 extraordinarily rich in fossils, specially in Producti of large size 

 and with large shells. Within this division the flint strata of silica 

 are scarcely ever of the nature of sandstones, but form beds, several 

 hundred feet thick, consisting of a nearly pure flint, and I think it 

 highly probable that the formation of these immense flint beds 

 stands in connexion with the eruptions whence originated the massive 

 layers of plutonic rocks, which meet us everywhere on Spitzbergen, 

 and which in many places form the very boundary between the 

 Mountain Limestone and the overlying strata belonging to later for- 

 mations. The profiles below exemplify the mode of occurrence of 

 the strata belonging to this division in Bell Sound and Ice Sound. 



1 According to von Buch, Keilhau states tliat Mount Misery consists entirely of 

 sandstone (compare von Buch, Berlin Akad. Ber. 1846, p. 145). This statement, how- 

 ever, is incorrect. 



