i>6 POMPECKJ JURASSIC FAUNA OF CAPE FLORA. [norw. POL. EXP. 



to conifers growing on the soil over which th^se basalt flows were discharged 

 during the Upper Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous Age; and they have „been 

 charred by being overwhelmed in a surface-flowing mass of lava". Some of 

 this wood must, according to Koetthtz, have been growing on the first or 

 lowest tier of basalt^. 



A conclusive proof that at any rate the lowest tier of the basalt cannot 

 be intrusive and consequently must be Jurassic, seems to me to be given by 

 Teall himself, when he says that „ evidence that pauses occurred during the 

 formation of the plateau-basalt ... is furnished by a specimen of a conglo- 

 meratic rock, mainly composed of basaltic debris, and containing rounded 

 pebbles, found some 50 feet above lowest rock near Cape Flora" ■^. This is 

 on the top of the lowest tier of basalt, and this basalt, as well as the basaltic 

 conglomerate, is consequently lower than the plant-bearing beds mentioned, 

 and must also be older, as the basaltic conglomerate cannot be intrusive. 



Moreover, it may also be remembered that neither the clay, or shale, 

 immediately below the basalt, nor the plantbearing strata between the tiers 

 of basalt, show any appreciable alteration by heat, or any contact-metamorphosis 

 (see pp. 15, 17, 21). 



Taken together, these facts appear to me to be conclusive, and we must 

 assume with Dr. Kcettlitz, that these plant-bearing beds have actually been 

 deposited, probably as lake-deposits, between the different discharges of the 

 flows of basalt. If then, these beds are Upper Jurassic or transition beds 

 to the Lower Cretaceous, the greater part of the basalt is also of Upper 

 Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous age. 



It is extremely interesting to learn that Prof. Nathorst has apparently 

 found the same basaltic and Jurassic formations on Kong Karl's Land 

 (Wiche Land) during his expedition last summer. 



Nathorst tells me that he believes the basaltic beds of Kong Karls 

 Land to be Upper .Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous and that they are not intru- 

 sive. He says: 



„1°, the basalt forms real flows or beds, bemg remains of old lava 

 streams". 



1 KcBltlitz, Geogr. Journal, 1898, p. 134. 



2 Newton and Teall, 1. c. 1897, p. 490. 



