22 OLAF HOLTEDAHL [SEC. ART. EXP. FRAM 



A very characteristic landform is the plateau-hke surface (see fig- 4) 

 about which Schef writes (prel. report p. 7): 



„The Archffian plateau in the south-east of Ellesmere Land, which 

 was once covered with sedimentary rocks of the younger formations, has 

 been planed down to Ihe same horizontal level as the deeply faulted 

 plateaus on the north and west, so that it now forms a level tableland, 

 with an average elevation of 3000 feet, and no isolated peaks rising to 

 any considerable height above the general level, while short valleys dip 

 from the crown of the plateau all round to its almost verlical outer edge. 

 On the west of Jones Sound, this Archeean plateau (horstj is continued 

 in the strata of Cambrian, Silurian, and Devonian age, which, inclining 

 gently towards the north-north-west, in part pass under the sea in Norwegian 

 Bay, and in part are supplanted, e.g. at Bird island Fjord (Fuglofjord) and 

 Isthmus Fjord (Eidefjord), by their dislocated equivalents and by younger 

 deposits. The Cambrian and Silurian deposits are continued northwards 

 in the elevated ground of Bache Peninsula and about Flagler Fjord. The 

 more violent dislocations which have taken place in the vicinity of Eureka 

 Sound, conjoined with the smallness of the faulted areas and the steepness 

 of the dip, have produced there a more extensive articulation of the surface. 

 The plateaus are cut up and divided by numerous permanent longitudinal 

 and transverse valleys, while their highest parts have been easily moulded 

 into crests and isolated peaks. Viewed from certain positions, the landscape 

 there presents some oF the rich modelling and variety of Alpine forms; 

 whereas from other points of observation it has faithfully preserved the 

 character of the tableland it really is. This same plateau type of formation, 

 which is characteristic of Ellesmere l^and, appears again west of Eureka 

 Sound, the south, west, and north sides of Heiberg Land, as well as 

 north-west of the folding strike in Grinnell Land." 



The remarkably even rock surface found in Braskerudflya (see pi. IL fig. 2), 

 south of Bay Fjord is, according to Schei, situated not more than about 

 200 m. above sea level — that is not much above the highest marine late 

 quaternary terraces mentioned below — yet must certainly be of quite 

 another and greater age. The character of this landscape seems to be 

 that of a wave-cut plain; the form of the surface indicates, however, ice 

 erosion following the modelling of the plain, and a period of greater ice 

 extent thus coming between the cutting of this plain and the building 

 up of the relatively very young marine terraces. 



As to the marine terraces Schei in his preliminary report writes (p. 7): 



„Marine terraces are quite common. They occur everywhere throughout 

 the Hayes Sound „field," also at Fort Juliane up to an elevation of 571 feet. 



