442 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mai. 28, 



and South America. Our P. mammatus ? is probably distinct from 

 the Eussian species, but it is at all events tbe same as one in Captain 

 Belcher's collection*. 



The size of the fossils, both of the Shells and Bryozoa, is remark- 

 able, and, taken in conjunction with the presence of large land-plants 

 in the coal, would seem to indicate a great decrease of temperature 

 in the Arctic region since the Carboniferous period. The shells are 

 larger, too, than the corresponding species in our own mountain- 

 limestone. 



Notes on the Sock-specimens from Spitzbeegen, collected by Capt. 

 Pabey and Lieut. Fostee. By L. Hobneb, Esq., Pees. G.S., &c. 



Captain Edward Parry, in his voyage to the North Pole, visited 

 the coasts of Spitzbergen in the summer of 1827 ; and in January 

 1828 this Society received from him, and from. Lieutenant Foster 

 who accompanied him, a collection of specimens of rocks, which 

 they had collected there ; but no description of the specimens exists, 

 either in the ' Transactions ' or in the ' Proceedings' of the Society, 

 nor can any manuscript description of them be found among the 

 archives of the Society. It has therefore been thought advisable to 

 take advantage of the opportunity afforded by Mr. Lamont's com- 

 munication, to give an account of the specimens in the possession 

 of the Society presented by the above-named officers, prefacing those 

 descriptions by a few extracts from the geological observations con- 

 tained in Captain Parry's ' Narrative f.' 



The i Hecla,' surveying ship, first reached the north-western coast 

 of Spitzbergen, and then, stretching eastward, along the low point 

 of Verlegen Hoek, they made sail to the N.N.E. towards the Seven 

 Islands, passing Low Island. They found tbe whole of the coast, 

 from Low Island to Black Point, and apparently as far as "Walden 

 Island, inaccessible by reason of one continuous and heavy ice-floe, 

 everywhere attached to the shores. Sounding in lat. 80° 16' 40", 

 five leagues north of Yerlegen Hoek, they found the bottom at 90 

 fathoms. 



On the 14th of June they reached lat. 81 e 5' 32", long. 19° 34' E., 

 Little Table Island bearing S. six or seven leagues ; and here they 

 found the depth of water 97 fathoms, with a bottom of greenish 

 mud. Little Table Island is described as a craggy rock, rising from 

 400 to 500 feet above the sea-level, having a low islet at its northern 

 end, — both together occupying an extent of about a third of a square 

 mile. They landed on the islet, naming it after Lieutenant Boss of 

 the ' Hecla ' (the present Sir James Boss), and found it to rise about 

 100 feet above the sea-level, and to consist of gneiss, having im- 

 bedded garnets in some parts. 



Specimen from Ross Islet. 



1. Grey foliated orthoclase-granite, with a gneissic tendency. 



* It is closely and finely striate, and has spines along the hinge-line only, 

 t Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole in the year 1827. 



