290 FOSSIL CANNON-BALLS. 



others I have observed great accumulations of 

 .coarse rhomboidal gravel, both on the beach 

 and at different elevations, but I never saw a 

 beach composed of rounded, water-worn pebbly 

 stones on any part of the coasts of Spitzbergen. 



The mountains about this fiord are composed 

 of a friable, crumbling limestone, which in 

 great part has a sort of brown tinge, as if 

 impregnated with oxide of iron. They are per- 

 fectly chock-full of fossils ; so much so as to look 

 as if they were actually composed of fossils in 

 some places. I gathered many specimens, and 

 I also picked up, in the bed of a torrent, three 

 stones so exactly spherical, and so highly fer- 

 ruginous-looking, that my Petropaulauski man- 

 of-war' s-man stoutly maintained that if the 

 " other stones " I gave him to carry were the 

 fossils of clams and cockles, these must un- 

 doubtedly be the fossils of cannon-shot of differ- 

 ent calibres. 



There is a good wah'us-boat lying on the 

 beach in a small bay here. This boat was 

 found two years ago floating bottom up, and 

 with two of the harpoon-lines broken, from 

 which it is concluded that a walrus had upset 

 her and drowned the crew. 



