NO. 2.] PREVIOUS LITERATURE. 



39 



pieces of a coarse calcareous grit in which Mr. E. T. Newton i identified petri- 

 fied wood and other plant-remains, "probably coniferous, but for the most 

 part too much altered to speak of with certainty". Newton also mentions a 

 fragment of a belemnite which cannot be determined, and the impression of 

 an ammonite which is said to resemble Amm. macrocephalus'^. No exact 

 statements of the age of these first fossils sent home by the Jackson-Harms- 

 worth Expedition could be made. 



1897. After his safe return from his great North Polar Expedition, 

 Prof. Fridtjof Nansen gave an account of his expedition and its results before 

 The Geographical Society in London on February 8th 18971 In the report 

 printed in the Geographical Journal he also mentions the occurrence of Jurassic 

 deposits in the Franz Josef Land Archipelago. At Cape Flora, on North- 

 brook-Island, he says the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition had discovered, 

 under a heavy cap of basalt, "an immense formation of clay" unquestionably 

 of mesozoic age. The fossils found in it point to the Lamberti-zone, with a 

 development resembling that of the Russian Jura. 



At the same time, Nansen called attention to a discovery made by Dr. 

 Reginald Koettlitz, the physician and geologist of the Jackson-Harmsworth 

 Expedition. Mr. Jackson and Dr. Koetthtz found, on a basalt rock protruding 

 from a glacier on the north side of Gape Flora, pieces of sandstone contain- 

 ing numerous fossil plant-remains. Nansen and his bold companion, Lieut. 

 Johansen, collected a large number of these plant-fossils, which, after their 

 return, were submitted to Prof. Nathorst in Stockholm for examination. Prof. 

 Nathorst identified these plant-remains as "belonging to the upper. White 

 Jura, rather than to the more medium Brown Jura". 



In the same year (1897) Nansen gave some further particulars about 

 the occurrence of Jura at Gape Flora, in his book on the expedition, the 

 German Edition of which: 'Durch Nacht und Eis', is before me. From this 

 report, and from the Norwegian edition"' of the same book, we learn that 



1 Arthur Montefiore, 'The Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition : An Account of its first win- 

 ter and of some discoveries in Franz Josef Land'. Geograpli. Journ. London 1895, 

 vol. VI. p. 519 (Note by Mr. E. T. Newton). 



^ Newton has since (1897) identified this piece with Macrooephalites macrocephalus 

 Schloth sp. 



^ Fridtjof Nansen, 'Some Results of the Norwegian Arctic Expedition 1893 — 96'. 

 Geograph. Journ. London 1897, vol. IX. pp. 489-490. 



* The details taken from the Norwegian edition I owe to a communication which Dr. 

 Joh. Riser of Christiania kindly made to me. 



