COASTS VISITED BY THE AKCTIC EXPEDITION. 573 



My reference to the belief of a Devonian fauna south of Cape 

 Joseph-Henry is based upon the presence of a few Brachiopoda of 

 peculiar type. The Dana-Bay Carboniferous beds appear repeated 

 by a fault along their strike, and therefore probably not exposing 

 their base. These presumed Devonian fossils were obtained in situ 

 from a ravine or torrent-course. The want of other fossils than plant- 

 remains in Heer's Ursa stage precludes comparison here ; and as we 

 know that the well- determined horizon of his Ursa-stage flora is at 

 the base of the Carboniferous series, or close of the Devonian epoch, 

 it almost leaves in doubt the position I should assign to these few 

 molluscan remains. Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., believes that both the 

 Bear-Island and Irish deposits, containing Lepidodendron (Cyclo- 

 stic/ma), were of Devonian age; and I entirely agree with him, 

 knowing at the same time how difficult it is to separate the Upper 

 Devonian from the lowest Carboniferous when . one group is con- 

 formable to the other. 



The important and complete ' Manual of the Natural History, 

 Geology, and Physics of the Arctic regions,' edited by Prof. Rupert 

 Jones, F.R.S.*, gives so complete a list of works and references to 

 all the chief papers relative to Arctic literature, that any bibliography 

 or enumeration of works of reference would here be superfluous. I 

 therefore refer all interested in Polar natural history and geology to 

 the portion of the Manual from page 324 to page 604, where every 

 thing bearing upon these questions is cited. 



We have no true evidence of the presence of any Permian rocks 

 within the Polar area, although Toulaf (1874-5) refers many of his 

 Polyzoa and Brachiopoda to what he calls Permo-Carboniferous 

 rocks, when the species are common to the two horizons ; and he 

 notices the Bell-Sound and Axel-Island species in Spitzbergen ; De 

 Koninck also believed that the Polyzoa of Bell Sound were of 

 Permian age. ToulaJ describes species of Fenestella, Polypora,. 

 Ramipora, Pliyllopora, and Glauconome § from this so-called Permo- 

 Carboniferous horizon. Nordenskiold has also determined that the 

 Spitzbergen true Carboniferous Limestone contains an admixture of 

 species of Polyzoa occurring in other countries only in Permian 

 strata. 



No Triassic strata have been detected either in this or any previous 

 expedition ; whether, therefore, either the Permian and Trias seas, or 

 both, aided in the denudation of the Carboniferous group, or their 

 sediments were deposited and then denuded before the deposition 

 of the Lias, which rests upon the Eglinton-Island Carboniferous 

 Limestone, must still remain an undetermined question. It would 



* Manual of the Natural History, Geology, and Physics of Greenland and 

 the neighbouring regions. Prepared for the use of the Arctic Expedition of 

 1875. Edited by Prof. Rupert Jones, F.R.S. &c. 1875. 



t ' Permo-Carb. Fossilien von der West-Kiiste von Spitzbergen,' pp. 225-264, 

 t. 5-10. 



% Vide notes on bibliography in present paper by R. Etheridge, jun. 



§ Proc. Imp. Acad. Sci. Vienna, June 1874, vol. tex p. 133. 



