0. Holtedahl—A TUlite-lilce Conglomerate. 165 



Art. XVI. — A Tillite-like Conglomerate in the "Eocam- 

 brian" Sparagmite of Southern Norway; by Olaf 



HOLTEDAHL. 



The so-called Sparagmite formation, which covers a 

 very large area of southeastern Norway (see fig. 1), is in 

 several respects a sedimentary series of considerable 

 interest. TVe meet here with thick beds of coarse-grained 

 clastic rocks, very rich in fresh feldspar, alternating with 

 thinner zones of clayey material and limestones. Of 

 these the Biri limestone is of most importance and best 

 known. 



Xo fossils have as yet been found in these rocks and 

 therefore there are somewhat divergent opinions as to 

 their exact age. We know that the sparagmites are older 

 than the Lower Cambrian Holmia shale, and as there 

 is a good transition from the highest sandstone into 

 the Holmia shale, Brogger, Minister, and more recently 

 J. Kiaer have regarded the sparagmites as closely attached 

 to the Cambrian. Brogger introduced for them the term 

 "Eokambrruiii," thus indicating that the strata are of the 

 oldest Cambrian, while Kiser classifies them as true Lower 

 Cambrian. The Swedish geologist Tornebohm, on the 

 contrary, referred the sparagmites to the Algonkian. 



Xon- Scandinavian authors have also discussed the age 

 of the Sparagmite series or parts of it. Walther, in his 

 paper "LVber algonkische Sedimente," 1 has emphasized 

 the great petrological likeness to the Torridonian of Scot- 

 land, while Rothpletz, 2 by assuming an overthrust that 

 quite certainly does not exist, held that the Biri limestone 

 is younger instead of older than the Holmia shale. From 

 this viewpoint of Eothpletz, Grabau, in his "Comparison 

 of American and European Lower Ordovicic Forma- 

 tions," 3 has discussed the possibility of the Biri limestone 

 being a continuation of the Durness limestone of north- 

 ern Scotland. 



The main objects of the present article are: (1) to 

 point out the occurrence in the sparagmites of conglom- 

 erates of a tillite-like character, and (2) to give a sum- 



1 J. Walthier, Zs. deutseh. Geol. Ges., 61, 2S3-305, 1909. 



: A. Eothpletz, Sitzber. Bavr. Akad. Wiss., 1-66, 1910. 



3 A. W. Grabau, Bull. Geol.' Soc. America, 27, 555-622, 1916 



