66 PROF. 0. HEER ON FOSSIL PLANTS DISCOVERED IN 



6. Rotes on Fossil Plants discovered in Grinnell Land by Captain 

 H. W. Feilden, Naturalist of the English North-Polar Expedition. 

 By Professor OswaldHeer, F.M.G.S. (Read November 7, 1877.) 



In the vicinity of Discovery Harbour, where H.M.S. ' Discovery ' 

 wintered during 1875-76, a thick bed of lignite was found. The 

 locality referred to is on the western shore of Robeson Channel, in 

 about latitude 81° 45' N., and longitude 64° 45' W., north-west of 

 Cape Murchison ; the exact position is designated Watercourse Ravine 

 in the Charts of the English Expedition. 



This coal-bed has a thickness of from 25 to 30 feet, and lies in a 

 depression, the foundation of which consists of the unconformably 

 stratified azoic schists which constitute the chief mass of Grinnell 

 Land. On the coal-bed rest immediately black shales and sandstones. 

 The black, fine-grained shales, which very closely resemble the 

 Taxodium-shsle of Cape Staratschin on the lee-fiord of Spitzbergen, 

 contain many remains of plants, which were collected by Captain 

 Feilden and handed over to me for examination. The coal-seam 

 and the superincumbent beds of shale and sandstone dip to the east 

 under the sea of Robeson Channel at an angle of about 10°. These 

 beds are cut through by a stream which has formed a deep gully, 

 wherein the strata are laid bare ; whilst at different points on the 

 upper strata rest beds of fine mud and glacial drift, which contain 

 well-preserved shells of marine Mollusea (Saxicava rugosa, Astarte 

 borealis, &c.) now found in the neighbouring sea. This glacial 

 marine deposit is met with up to a height of 1000 feet above the 

 present sea-level, and shows that the land was sunk beneath the 

 surface of the sea subsequently to the deposition of the lignite and 

 plant-bearing shales, but was again elevated more than 1000 feet. 

 Very probably the lignite-bed and the accompanying plant-bearing 

 shales are to be met with in other parts of Grinnell Land, although 

 hitherto only proved to occur at the place indicated. 



Captain Feilden only made two visits, as the plant-bearing nature 

 of the deposit was not discovered until a very late period of the 

 Expedition. This is much to be deplored, as the shales enclose rich 

 botanical treasures. 



Captain Feilden's collection contains 26 species ; and of these, 18 

 species are known from the Miocene deposits of the Arctic zone. 

 This deposit is therefore doubtless Miocene. It shares 17 species 

 with Spitzbergen (latitude 76°-79° N.) and 8 species with Greenland 

 (latitude 70°-71° N.). The Grinnell-Land flora consequently more 

 closely approaches the Miocene of Northern Spitzbergen (which lies 

 from 3° to 4° of latitude further south) than that of Greenland (situ- 

 ated almost 11° further south). With the Miocene flora of Europe it 

 has 6 species in common, with that of America (Alaska arid Canada) 4, 

 and with that of Asia (Sachalin) 1 also. 



Let us now examine these plants somewhat more closely. Of Cryp- 



