538 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Juiie 13, 



Highly crystalline gypsum was also procured by Lieut. Pirn from 

 the north-western shores of Melville Island. In the collection before 

 us we see silicified stems of plants, which Lieut. Pim gathered on 

 various points between Wellington Channel on the east and Banks's 

 Land on the west. Similar silicified plants were also brought home 

 by Capt. M*Clure from Banks's Land ; and, through the kindness 

 of Mr. Barrow, to whom they were presented, they are now ex- 

 hibited, together with a collection made by Capt. Kellett, which he 

 sent to Dr. J. E. Gray of the British Museum, who has obligingly 

 lent them for comparison. 



I had requested Dr. Hooker to examine all those specimens which 

 passed through my hands, and I learn from him that he will prepare 

 a description of them, as well as of a great number from the same 

 region, which had been sent to his father. Sir W. Hooker, associated, 

 like those now under consideration, with fragments of recent wood. 



Of Secondary formations no other evidence has been met with 

 except some fossil bones of Saurians, brought home by Sir E. Belcher, 

 from the smaller islands north of Wellington Channel ; and of these 

 fossils Sir Edward will give a description. Of the old Tertiary rocks, 

 as characterized by their organic remains, no distinct traces have, as 

 far as I am aware, been discovered ; and hence we may infer that the 

 ancient submarine sediments, having been elevated, remained during 

 a very long period beyond the influence of depositary action. 



Let us now see how the other facts,- brought to our notice by the 

 gallant Arctic explorers who have recently returned to our country, 

 bear upon the relations of land and water in this Arctic region during 

 the quasi-modern period, when the present species of trees were in 

 existence. 



Capt. M'Clure states that in Banks's Land, in latitude 74° 48', 

 and thence extending along a range of hills varying from 350 to 500 

 feet above the sea, and from half a mile to upwards inland, he found 

 great quantities of wood, some of which was rotten and decomposed, 

 but much of it sufficiently fresh to be cut up and used as fuel. 

 Whenever this wood was in a well-preserved state, it was either 

 detected in gullies or ravines, or had probably been recently exhumed 

 from the frozen soil or ice. In such cases, and particularly on the 

 northern faces of the slopes where the sun never acts, wood might be 

 preserved any length of time, inasmuch as Capt. M'Clure tells me he 

 has eaten beef, which, though hung up in his cold larder for two 

 years, was perfectly untainted. 



The most remarkable of these specimens of well-preserved recent 

 wood is the segment of a tree, which, by Capt. M'Clure's orders, 

 was sawn from a trunk sticking out of a ravine, and which is now 

 exhibited*. It measures 3 feet 6 inches in circumference. Still 

 more interesting is the cone of one of these fir-trees which he brought 

 home, and which apparently belongs to an Abies resembling A. alba, 

 a plant still living within the Arctic circle. One of Lieut. Pim's 



* Through the kindness of Mr. John Barrow, to whom it had been given, this 

 wood, with some silicified stems, has been presented to the Museum of Practical 

 Geology. 



