258 Prof. A. E, Nordenskiold — Geology of Spitzbergen. 



fore, in respect to them, merely remind tlie reader that they are 

 strongly dislocated, or perhaps more correctly compressed, in a 

 basin-shaped hollow in the older rock formations. The strata con- 

 sist of sandstone, clay-slate, and three coal-seams. 



2. The Taxodium Strata at Cape Staratschin. — At this place, too, 

 the Miocene strata only fill up an inconsiderable hollow between 

 the sandstone belonging to the Cretaceous series, which occurs at 

 the Fastness, and at the same rock at the entrance to Green Sarhour. 

 Close to the Taxodium slate in the rocky shelf, near the shore, we 

 have the following section : — 



E W 



i 2 3 456789 10 n 10 



Fig. 14. — Section of the Taxodium Strata at Cape Staratschin, 1872. 



1. (Lowermost). Grey sandstone, with thin beds of slate. 



2. Coarse conglomerate, 8 metres. 



3. Grey coarse sandstone, with beds of slate and leaf impressions, 17 metres. 



4. A thin coal-seam, 0-1 metre. 



5. A fine clay-slate (Taxodium slate), exceedingly rich in beautiful and well- 

 preserved fossils, 0-7 metres. The distance of this important locality from the sand- 

 stone ridge at the Fastness is 520 metres. 



6. Grey coarse sandstone with leaf impressions. 



7. Coal, 1 metre. 



8. A pretty hard marl-slate, 2 metres. 



9. Grey sandy shales, 2 metres. 



10. Part not exposed. 



11. Coal-seam, probably a continuation of seam 7. 



Further on west, towards the sandstone ridge, the strata were covered by gravel 

 and snow drifts ; still farther we met with a nearly vertical conglomerate stratum a, 

 probably a continuation of stratum 2, and then vertical strata of sandstone and 

 slate b, showing at some places uncommonly well-marked tracks of the action of 

 waves. It is possible that these strata belong to the same series as those which at 

 the sandstone ridge close at hand contain Cretaceous plants. 



I had already visited this place during the Expedition of 1858, 

 and I then found here the first fossil plants from this locality, namely, 

 some small petrified stems and branches, also fragments of shells 

 imbedded in a conglomerate bed two to three inches thick, which I 

 have not since met with again. The fossil plant-remains are described 

 by Professor C. Cramer in Heer's Flora fossilis arctica, Del. i. s. 175. 

 The fragments of shells consist of mere fragments of sea-shells, prob- 

 ably washed out of some older strata. Some paces east of the Tax- 

 odium strata, there is a stratum of impure clay ironstone, containing 

 Nordenslcioldia arctica, Heer, Sparganium crassum, Heer, and Selle- 

 horites marginatus, Heer. The position of this stratum in the series 

 just described I have not been able to determine. 



Stratum 5 (the Taxodium stratum) cannot, indeed, be compared 

 with the strata at Cape Lyell for absolute richness in fossil plants, 

 but on the other hand it exceeds both the strata just mentioned 



