568 E. ETHEEIDGE ON THE PAL2BONT010GY OF THE 



36. Paleontology of the Coasts of the Aectic Lands visited by the 

 late Beittsh Expedition under Captain Sir Geoege Naees, R.N., 

 K.C.B., F.E.S. By B. Etheeidge, Esq., E.B.S., Y.P.G.S., &c. 

 (Read April 17, 1878.) 



[Plates XXV.-XXIX.] 



Inteodijction. 



It is no easy matter to parallel or attempt to correlate the older 

 Palaeozoic rocks of the northern extremity of British North America 

 with the probably contemporaneous rocks extending as far northward 

 as within 7° of the Pole, much more with those of Northern Europe 

 and Britain. 



The collection made by Capt. Feilden, Lieut. Aldrich, Drs. Cop- 

 pinger and Moss, and Mr. Hart clearly shows that great masses of 

 metamorphic and Palaeozoic rocks occur, and occupy an extensive 

 area, both in Grinnell Land, Grant Land, and Greenland, Whether 

 these can be shown to be a continuous portion of the Laurentian * 

 or Huronian rocks of Canada, or the fundamental or oldest gneiss of 

 the north-west coast of Scotland and the "Western Islands, remains 

 yet to be proved. There is every probability that these ancient 

 hornblendic schists do extend from North Britain to North Ame- 

 rica, and underlie the greater part, if not the whole, of the North 

 Atlantic and Polar Sea. 



Hitherto the Laurentian type of Canada has not been discovered 

 in the British Isles, neither have we amongst the ' Alert ' and 

 4 Discovery' collections any specimens that can be said to agree with 

 the Magnesian and Eozoonal conditions of this fundamental rock. 

 The North-Atlantic Ocean, which occupies so large an area, may, 

 indeed, rest upon a great expansion of our Hebridean Gneissose 

 series, and Huronian or Cambrian and Silurian rocks may overlie 

 this ; and probably, if clear sections could be seen, and superposition 

 determined, they would be found to pass upwards into the Potsdam 

 or Lower Silurian series of America. The extensive collection of 

 rock-specimens made indicates this probable succession ; and few as 

 are the Lower-Silurian fossils brought home, they are enough to 

 show the succession to be much the same as in British North 

 America and the British islands ; and the Upper Silurian fossils of 

 Dobbin Bay, Cape Hilgard, Cape Louis Napoleon, Offley Island, 

 &c. confirm this unmistakably. Moreover we are enabled to cor- 

 relate these Upper Silurian fossils with the Wenlock group of 

 Britain ; but, nevertheless, they have a facies allying them to the 

 American types rather than to our own. 



* Laurentian rocks are noticed at pp. 324, 327, and 541 of the 'Arctic 



Manual.' 



