570 E. ETHERlDGE ON THE PALEONTOLOGY OP THE 



by his party with the " 'Alert' and 'Discovery's' dog-sledges," may 

 never again be obtained ; they now illustrate the structure of the 

 nearest known land to the Pole, in latitude 83°, and were brought 

 back to the 'Alert' under the greatest difficulties and privations. 



Much has been done relative to Arctic geology and palaeontology 

 by previous writers, with regard to the North- American conti- 

 nent, Spitzbergen, and Scandinavia, as well as in those latitudes 

 bordering the Polar circle; still every new expedition or voyage 

 increases our knowledge of the fossil fauna and flora of these 

 regions, notably so the present, under the command of Captain Sir 

 G. Nares, whose officers penetrated as far north as lat. 83° 6', head 

 or winter quarters being in lat. 82° 27'. During the memorable 

 sledge-journeys from the 'Alert' and ' Discovery,' the most northerly 

 land yet known was searched, and the practical result conveyed 

 back to the ships in the shape of a large collection of rocks and 

 fossils made along the northern shores of Grinnell Land, from Cape 

 Joseph Henry, lat. 82° 47' N., long. 63° 50' E., to Cape Alfred 

 Ernest, lat. 82° 15' and W. long. 80°, Eeilden Peninsula, lat. 82° 50', 

 Point Hercules, lat. 82° 40', and Cape Columbia, 83° 6', the most 

 northerly headland known ; collections were also made at Port 

 Eoulke, Cape Isabella, Discovery Bay, Lincoln Bay, Cape Union, 

 Offley Island, and Petermann Eiord ; also at Hayes Sound, lat. 

 78° 50', Cape Frazer, lat. 79° 44', Cape Victoria, lat. 79° 12', Walrus 

 Island, lat. 79° 25'. At all these stations collections were made 

 from rocks in situ, a matter of much importance to a right inter- 

 pretation of the sequence or stratigraphical position of the speci- 

 mens. It appears that a great thickness of unconformable and 

 unfossiliferous Archaean (azoic) rocks, of younger date than the Lau- 

 rentian or fundamental gneiss, but older than the Silurian series, 

 occupy the east shores of Grinnell Land from Scoresby Bay to Cape 

 Cresswell, lat. 82° 40', and east of Robeson Channel, on the Green- 

 land coast, equivalents in time of the great Huronian series of North 

 America and Canada ; whether continuous or not it is perhaps im- 

 possible to say at present. These " Archaean" rocks, which constitute 

 the great Azoic series (Laurentian and Huronian), and preceded the 

 Cambrian and Silurian, seem to occupy the position mentioned ; for 

 the present the name " Cape-Rawson beds" has been applied to 

 them as applicable to the geographical position and distribution of 

 these extremely northern azoic rocks, thus avoiding a strict and 

 uncertain correlation with the known American " Archaean " rocks. 

 No organic remains whatever have occurred in these Cape-Rawson 

 slates, quartzites, grits, and impure limestones, which constitute 

 masses of land 3000 feet high. The physical structure and aspect of 

 these ancient schists have been described by Captain Eeilden and 

 Mr. De Ranee, E.G.S. 



Looking at the facies of the fossils in the collection, and comparing 

 them with the fauna of North America and Canada on the one side, 

 and that of Greenland, Spitzbergen, Scandinavia, Europe, and Bri- 

 tain on the other, it becomes a difficult question to which area and 

 faunal type we may or can safely refer them ; in other words, Are 



