IS-l-G.] MURCHISON ON THE ROCKS OF SMOLAND, OLAND, ETC. 17 



works of Hisinger, as the localities had not yet been visited by En- 

 glish, French or German geologists. The first addition we were 

 enabled to make to our previous knowledge of these tracts was by 

 discovering along a large portion of the coast of Smoland, extending 

 from the north of Monsteras to the south of Calmar, a light-coloured, 

 whitish sandstone, precisely similar to that which I have previously 

 described in the contiguous provinces of the mainland (KiunekuUe, 

 Liignos, &c.), and this sandstone, lying upon azoic and granitic rocks, 

 is surmounted by black aluminous schist and Orthoceratite lime- 

 stone. The tract of Smoland occupied by this lowest bed of the 

 Silurian system of Sweden, is so low, and has so few natural features 

 which can expose the subsoil, that the sandstone itself is not, I believe, 

 to be seen in situ at more than one locality. 



The inhabitants of the district have, indeed, no reason to go to 

 the expense of excavating quarries ; for, with the exception of a few 

 osar containing water-worn northern detritus, nearly the whole sur- 

 face of the country, along a distance of many miles, is strewed over 

 by large angular fragments of the sandstone, affording ample ma- 

 terials for working into millstones, building-stone, &c. As this sand- 

 stone is identical with that which partly occupies the western shores 

 of the Isle of Cland, and as the mainland, extending to the west, the 

 north and the south, consists of gneiss and ancient granitic rocks, 

 there can be no doubt that all this sandstone of the low seaward 

 promontories of Smoland is merely dislocated and broken up in situ, 

 and was formerly in connection with a similar rock in Oland ; the 

 narrow channel between that island and the mainland having since 

 been excavated in this deposit. (See PI. I. fig. 7, a). 



On reaching the port of Calmar, we were prevented by a violent 

 storm from reaching Oland, where it had been our intention to in- 

 spect the exact relations of the sandstone and the overlying schist, 

 which is largely used for the extraction of alum, as well as the Ortho- 

 ceratite limestone, which is extensively quarried and exported both 

 for lime and as an ornamental marble. These rocks (all slightly in- 

 clined to the E.S.E.) having however been correctly laid down by 

 Hisinger in a geological map, accompanied by an account of the 

 order of superposition, and the fossils having been examined by us 

 in numerous collections, we felt less regret in not having been able 

 to accomplish our object. In fact, the succession in Oland is so 

 symmetrical and unbroken, and its limestone is so clearly of Lower 

 Silurian age, that no doubts can be entertained concerning it. This 

 rock contains the Orthis calligramma and Ulcenus crassicauda, both 

 of which typify the Lower Silurian rocks of Scandinavia, Russia and 

 England, together with Orthis moneta, Asaphus expansus, the well- 

 known Orthoceratites duplex or communis, O. trochlearis, with the 

 Cystidea, Echino-sphcerites pomum, E. aurantium and the Syco- 

 cystites granatum ( V. Buch) ; all these species characterize rocks of 

 the same Lower Silurian age in various parts of Sweden and the Baltic 

 provinces of Russia, and have nowhere yet been found in Upper 

 Silurian strata. 



Oland exhibits, in fact, the same normal ascending succession of 



VOL. HI. PART I. c 



