312 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Juiie I, 



ultimately sinks to the bottom*. This process of deposition extend- 

 ing over thousands of years would produce accumulations scarcely 

 second to those of the "berg-mehl" of Sweden, or of the tripoli of 

 the Isle of France. 



In addition to such varied materials as we have indicated, the ac- 

 cumulation of " till " will contain abundant remains of animals high 

 in the order of creation. Of all parts of the ocean this is the most 

 frequented by the large cetacea and the seals. The numbers of the 

 former are very great, and that of the latter almost beyond comprehen- 

 sion. Their bones must be strewed on the bottom, and thus they will 

 become constituents of the growing deposit. It may also contain the 

 enduring remains of other animals. Every Arctic traveller is aware 

 of the fact that Polar bears are seen on the ice at great distances from 

 the land ; and my own experience bears testimony to the fact that 

 not unfrequently they are found swimming when neither ice nor land 

 is in sight. The Arctic fox and, I believe, also the wolf, and certainly 

 the Esquimaux dog, animals not generally known to take the water, 

 are set adrift upon the ice and blown out to sea, where they perish 

 when the ice dissolves. And cases are known, although perhaps not 

 recorded, in which human beings have been blown away from the 

 land upon the drifting floes, and never heard of. Two persons to 

 my own knowledge have thus disappeared from the coast of West 

 Greenland. One of them, however, reached the opposite side of 

 Davis' Straits, where he spent the remainder of his life among his 

 less civilized brethren. And the ships engaged in the whaling on 

 the west side of this Strait sometimes have a deed of humanity to 

 discharge by taking from the drifting pack-ice a group of natives. 

 I have not alluded to the remains of reindeer and other ruminants of 

 these regions, for the reason that I believe they frequent the ice much 

 less than those that have been mentioned, and consequently are much 

 less liable to be drifted away. It is highly probable, however, that 

 their bones, as well as human remains and works of art, sometimes 

 reach the bottom of the Arctic Seas, the ice of rivers and deep inland 

 bays being the conveying agents. 



4, On Arctic Silurian Fossils. By J. W. Salter, Esq., F.G.S, 



A considerable number of limestone fossils were brought home 

 by the officers and gentlemen engaged in the late Arctic Expedition 

 (1850-51), which have added very materially to our knowledge of 

 the geology of those polar regions. 



The rocks along the coasts of Barrow Strait and the shores of 

 Prince Regent's Inlet were already partly explored by Parry, and 



* For an account of the Diatomacese of these seas, see Prof. Dickie's " Notes on 

 the Algae," in the Appendix to Dr. Sutherland's Journal, vol. ii. p. cxcv. et seq. 



