234; Scientific Intelligence. 



geology of this region in the far north, are given in the following 

 paragraphs. 



" In conclusion, we may perhaps be allowed to sketch out briefly 

 the salient features in the geological history of Franz Josef Land, 

 so far as this can be done in the light of our present knowledge. 

 Passing over the plant-bed at Cape Stephen, the age of which is 

 uncertain, the first event of which we have any record is the 

 deposition of a series of shales and sandstones containing plant- 

 remains, beds of lignite, and other evidences of littoral orestuarine 

 conditions. Intimately associated with these shallow- water deposits 

 are some purely marine beds, the age of which is placed beyond all 

 doubt by the occurrence of such well-characterized zonal fossils as 

 Ammonites macrocephalus and A. modiolaris. 



Owing mainly to the brilliant researches of Neumayr, it is now 

 generally recognized that the Jurassic sea reached its greatest 

 extension in the present land-areas during the Callovian and 

 Oxfordian periods. Hydrocratic and geocratic movements alter- 

 nated during Jurassic times, with a decided balance in favour of 

 the former, and a recession of the coast-line towards the north. 

 Even in the North of Scotland we find no decided evidence of the 

 proximity of land during the Oxfordian period, although the 

 lower portions of the Jurassic formation are represented by lit- 

 toral and estuarine deposits. 



Under these circumstances the discovery of A. macrocephalus- 

 beds in Franz Josef Land in association with plant-bearing strata 

 is of special interest. It extends the range of this ammonite 

 several degrees towards the north, and shows, in all probability, 

 that during the period of its existence a coast-line lay somewhere 

 in this direction. Marine deposits of Callovian and Oxfordian 

 age are now known to range from Sutherland to Cutch and from 

 Franz Josef Land to the North of Africa ; and A. macrocephalus 

 is one of the most widely distributed of all Jurassic ammonites. 

 The soft Jurassic sediments were subsequently covered up and 

 preserved irom destruction by vast flows of basaltic lava ; and it 

 is not a little remarkable that rocks of the same general period 

 have been preserved in the same way in districts so far removed 

 from Franz Josef Land as the Northwest of Scotland and Abys- 

 sinia. We have already pointed out that Dr. Nansen refers the 

 basalt in part to the Jurassic period; but in view of the fact that 

 the basalts of the West of Scotland were at one time supposed to 

 be of the same age, for reasons similar to those relied upon by 

 him, this conclusion cannot be regarded as definitly established. 

 At the same time it is important to notice that, if we except the 

 North of Ireland, the Upper Cretaceous period is unrepresented, or 

 but feebly represented, by sedimentary deposits in regions like the 

 Deccan of India and the high plateaux of Abyssinia, where basalts 

 are extensively developed. It is therefore quite possible that the 

 vast outpourings of basic lavas which have given a special character 

 to extensive areas of the earth's surface may have commenced in 

 pre-Tertiary times. 



