﻿572 Reports and Proceedings — 



Near DiscoYery Harbour, where H.M.S. " Discovery " wintered 

 in 1875-6, in about 81° 45' N. lat., and 64° 45' W. long., a bed of 

 lignite, from 25 to 30 feet tbick, was found, resting unconformably 

 upon the azoic schists of which Grinnell Land chiefly consists. The 

 lignite was overlain by black shales and sandstones, the former con- 

 taining many remains of plants ; and above these there were, here 

 and there, beds of fine mud and glacial drift, containing shells of 

 marine Mollusca of species now living in the adjacent sea. This 

 glacial marine deposit occurs up to levels of 1000 feet, indicating a 

 depression and subsequent elevation of the region to at least this extent, 



Eemains of 25 species of plants were collected by Capt. Feilden, 

 and 18 of these are known from Miocene deposits of the Arctic 

 zone. The deposit is therefore no doubt Miocene. It has 17 species 

 in common with Spitzbergen (78° 79' N. lat.), and 8 species in 

 common with Greenland (70° 71' N. lat.). With the Miocene flora 

 of Europe it has 6 species in common; with that of America 

 (Alaska and Canada) 4 ; with that of Asia (Sachalin) 4 also. The 

 species found include 2 of Equisetum, 10 ConiferEe, Phragmites (Enin- 

 gensis, Carex Noursodkensis, and 8 Dicotyledons, viz. Populus arctica, 

 Betula prisca and Brongniarti, Corylus Macquarrii and insignis, Ulmus 

 horealis, Viburnum Nordenskioldi, and Nymphcea arctica. 



Of the Conifers, Torellia rigida, previously known only by a few 

 fragments from Spitzbergen, is very abundant, and its remains show 

 it to have been allied to the Jurassic genera PlKBnicopsis and Baiera, 

 the former in its turn related to the Carboniferous Cordaites, and 

 among recent Conifers, to Podocarpus. Other Conifers are, Thuites 

 Ehrensivardi (?), Taxodium distichum miocenum (with male flowers), 

 Pinus Feildeniana (a new species allied to P. strohus), Pinus polaris, 

 P. ahies (twigs covered with leaves), a species of Tsuga (Pinus 

 Dichsoniana, Heer), and a white Spruce of the group of Pinus 

 grandis and cariocarpa. Pinus ahies, which occurs here and in 

 Spitzbergen, did not exist in Europe in Miocene times, but had its 

 original home in the extreme north, and thence extended south- 

 wards ; it is met with in the Norfolk Forest-bed, and in the inter- 

 glacial lignites of Switzerland., Its present northern limit is 69 J° 

 N., and it spreads over 25 degrees of latitude. Taxodium distichum, 

 on the contrary, spread in Miocene times from Central Italy to 

 82° N. latitude, whilst at present it is confined to a small area. 



Betula Brongniarti, Ett., is the only European species from Grin- 

 nell Land not previously known from the arctic zone. 



The thick lignite-bed of Grinnell Land indicates a large peat- 

 moss, probably containing a lake in which the water-lilies grew ; on 

 its muddy shores stood the large reeds and sedges, the birches, 

 poplars, Taxodia, and Torellice. The drier spots and neighbouring 

 chains of hills were probably occupied by the pines and firs, 

 associated with elms and hazel-bushes. A single elytron of a beetle 

 ( Carabites Feildenianus) is at present the sole evidence of the exist- 

 ence of animals in this forest-region. 



The nature of the flora revealed by Capt. Feilden's discoveries 

 seem to confirm and extend earlier results. It approaches much 



