iSl^e.] MURcnrsoN ox the geology of dalecarlia, etc. 5 



Skarberga. The strata on the shore are there seen to consist of the 

 same limestone as that which occurs at Uitby and Rattvik, but the 

 dip is entirely changed. The beds being inclined only 22° to 25° 

 to the N.W., expose in successive ledges a thickness of 40 or 50 feet 

 of limestone ; the uppermost being of red and green mottled colours 

 with marlstone, and the central or thicker beds (1 to 2 feet each) of 

 deep red tint. These beds are loaded with gigantic Orthoceratites 

 (^O. duplex), some of which are more than 3 or 4 feet in length, and 

 with these are associated other fossils, including Lituites convolvens, 

 a form well-known in the Lower Silurian rocks of ISt. Petersburg. 



At the adjacent hamlet of Vickarby and between that place and 

 Oya, shale and limestone are to be observed, but not in juxtaposi- 

 tion ; the former a black schist (lerskifFer) on the banks of a rivulet 

 north of the road, the latter on the high road to Mora, and about 

 three-quarters of an English mile beyond Vickarby, where a rock 

 similar to that before described, but containing a few fossils, is seen 

 in highly inclined strata, striking east and west, and at only ten 

 paces from the granite from which it dips away rapidly to the S. 

 and S.W. 



In all the hilly and rugged tract which intervenes between this 

 spot and Mora nothing is observable save the detritus of granitic 

 and other crystalline rocks ; and though faint traces of the Lower 

 Silurian beds are visible near Mora and Vika on the western side 

 of the Lake Siljan, I will at once refer to the natural sections exposed 

 in the isle of Soller, near the western extremity of the lake of that 

 name, as they are among the best which can be observed in this 

 region, for the purpose of developing the relations of the different 

 beds of the Lower Silurian rocks to intrusive granite. 



This isle, about a Swedish mile or nearly six English miles in 

 length from S.E. to N.W., consists in its south-eastern part of that 

 variety of granite (composed of greenish- white and pink felspar, mica, 

 quartz and hornblende) which is called " granitello" by the Swedish 

 mineralogist Erdmann. This mass, rising to about 200 feet above the 

 lake, is flanked at lower levels towards the N.W,, first by a band of 

 limestone and next by one of sandstone. 



The church and chief portion of the village stands on the nort.i- 

 western edge of the granite, and a very little below them, limestone, 

 identical with that of Vickafby and chiefly of a reddish colour, is 

 seen in a sloping plateau inclined to the N.W., W.N.W. and N.N.W. 

 at angles varying from 5° to 14°. This red rock affords the usual 

 Orthoceratites (O. duplex); whilst a grey and greenish variety, 

 found at a somewhat lower level, is charged not only with Orthis 

 regularis and O. moneta, but also with the Sphceronites aurantium 

 a species of Von Buch's family of Cystidea, which at Kinnekulle and 

 elsewhere in Sweden, as at Petersburg, is typical of the Lower Silu- 

 rian formation. 



A single traverse of these strata on one parallel might lead to 

 the belief that the granite was the fundamental rock of the isle, and 

 that next to it in ascending order of age came the great Orthocera- 

 tite limestone and Sphaeronite beds, and lastly the sandstone, which 



