32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June S, 



are only to be found in islands nearer the centre of such trough, as 

 in Gothland on the one hand and in Oesel on the other. 



Whether these Ludlow or uppermost Silurian strata ever ex- 

 tended upwards into others which fully represented the Devonian 

 system, in that space now occupied by the wide sea between the 

 Swedish island of Gothland and the Russian island of Oesel, can of 

 course be only conjectured; but the indication of the presence of two 

 or three Devonian species of shells and a profusion of corals common 

 to Upper Silurian and Devonian in the southern and S.E. parts of 

 Gothland seem to favour this hypothesis, which becomes more pro- 

 bable when we know that vast territories of Russia are composed of 

 true Devonian rocks. 



3. Palceozoic Rocks of Scania. 



In the appendix to the work on Russia and the Ural Mountains 

 (p. 64-6) geologists were informed, that although researches had led 

 me to believe that the chief masses of the palaeozoic strata of the 

 continent of Sweden (certainly all those which at that time had fallen 

 under my survey), were of Lower Silurian age, there were strong 

 reasons to suppose, particularly from the researches of Professor 

 Forchhammer, that patches of Upper Silurian also existed both 

 at Aalleberg in West Gothland and in Scania. It was then stated, 

 that this point would, if possible, be cleared up by personal observa- 

 tions in the course of last summer. In reference to Scania, M. de 

 Verneuil and myself travelled from Carlscrona to Christianstad ; and 

 thence passing to Andrarum, well-known for its alum slates and their 

 fossils, we made a transverse section across the country by Ofved's 

 Kloster to Lund. 



Owing to the flat and very slightly undulating nature of the 

 country, the highest points of which are not 300 feet above the 

 sea, and to wide-spreading masses of superficial clay covered with 

 erratic blocks, &c., the succession of the strata is obscurely seen. 

 But, whilst the relations of the different masses of any one system, 

 such as the Silurian, are difficultly traceable, there is no tract in 

 Sweden in which such a variety of sedimentary deposits occur. Be- 

 sides the ancient granitic and slaty rocks, Scania contains both 

 Lower and Upper Silurian strata ; there are also lignite or coal de- 

 posits with many plants (which have been referred to the oolitic 

 series as well as to the Wealden and the greensand) ; numerous 

 patches of chalk occur charged with beautifully preserved fossils ; 

 and lastly, besides northern drift and erratic blocks, this district is of 

 deep geological interest as exhibiting in its terrestrial and modern 

 strata abundant remains of extinct animals commingled with some 

 which now exist. In short, just as Scania first presents the aspect 

 of Denmark, to the traveller proceeding from the north, in its people, 

 architecture, flat surface and deep soil, so by its overlying secondary 

 and recent deposits, it is naturally linked on to the great continent to 

 the south of it, with which, as stated in a preceding memoir, it must 

 have been united, when Sweden and Northern Scandinavia were to a 

 great extent submarine and subjected to very different conditions. 



