Frof. A, E. NordensUold — Geology of Spitzhergen, 261 



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most commonly Populus arctica, Hr., also Taxodium ; fragments of 

 the leaves of Platanus acero'ides, Goeppert, Sorbus ? grandifoUa, Hr., 

 Equisetum, Fhragmites, Cyperacites, and Quercus.'' The Coal-seam 

 here is, on the other hand, the best I know on Spitzbergen. 



As the strike of the strata is very nearly the 

 same as the direction of the Sound, and they dip f4 

 6° to 10° towards Coal Bay, it is probable that the 

 high ridge in the neighbourhood consists of more 

 recent beds than the Miocene strata at the shore. 

 Unfortunately I could not on this opportunity ex- 

 amine them more closely. It is, however, highly 

 probable that such is the case from the formation 

 of Heer's Mountain lying on the other side of the 

 valley in the bottom of the fiord. 



4. Seer's Mountain. — During the Expedition of 

 1861 Blom strand found here Miocene fossil plants, 

 among them Platanus acero'ides, Goepp., in the 

 neighbourhood of a coal-seam at a height of 200 

 metres above the sea. It was, however, impossible 

 to institute a closer examination of the place, on 

 account of the gravel which had fallen down from 

 the mountain, and at the time was hard frozen. 



5. The Coal Mount on the north shore of Van 

 Mijen Bay in Bell Sound. (See Woodcut, Fig. 16.) 



a. Locality for Miocene vegetable remaias. 



b. An inconsiderable coal-seam. 



c. Loose sandstone strata, with a few impressions of 

 l^axodhim. 



d. Hard sandstone, with large indistinct impressians of 

 plants. 



The first Miocene plants from Spitzbergen were 

 discovered by me in 1858 (at a in the %ure), in a 

 black sandy slate, easily split up, and alternating 

 with seams of sandstone, in solid rock about the 

 middle of the shore terrace on the south-west side 

 of the mountain. This slate is overlain a little way 

 from the shore by a greyish-white sandstone, in 

 nearly horizontal layers, rather hard at the begin- 

 ning, but higher up very loose, which, alternating • 

 with seams of slate, occupies the whole of the Coal 

 Mount, and of Sundevall's Mountain, which lies 

 farther up the fiord. The whole forms a series at 

 least 360 metres thick of Miocene or Post-Miocene 

 strata, a closer examination of which may, perhaps, 

 throw important light on the passage from the 

 Miocene to more recent periods. Although I have 

 myself visited the place three times, I have not had 

 opportunity to make such an examination, and in 

 1864 and 1872 I was unable to find again the 

 fossiliferous stratum at the foot of the mount. 



The number of the species from this stratum described by Heer 





