220 é DR JAMES GEIKIE ON 
known. In 1873, however, appeared an excellent paper by Professor JoHN- 
STRUP, in which he gives a detailed account of the coal-beds of Suderée. * 
This, I believe, is the most recent addition to our knowledge of the geology of 
the Feerde Islands. It is referred to in my description of Suderée.t 
II. PaysicAL FEATURES OF THE ISLANDS. 
1. Extent, Form, and Trend of the Islands and Fiords.—The Ferée Islands { 
are upwards of twenty in number, and nearly all are inhabited. They extend 
over an area of about seventy miles in length from north to south, and nearly 
fifty miles in breadth from west to east. The two largest islands are Stromde 
and Osterée, which closely adjoin and contain together upwards of 250 square 
miles, an area which is nearly equal to that of all the other members of the 
group. The extent of land in this little archipelago may therefore be roughly 
estimated at about 500 square miles. Nearly all the islands have an elongated 
form, and are drawn out ina N.N.W.and §.8S.E. direction. This is the direction 
also of the more or less narrow sounds or open fiords that separate the islands 
in the northern part of the archipelago ; and the wider belts of water in the 
south, such as Suderde Fiord, Skuée Fiord, and Skaapen Fiord, have the same 
general trend. A glance at the accompanying map (Plate XVI.) will show that 
many of the closed fiords which penetrate the islands extend in a similar direc- 
tion throughout the whole or a large part of their course. There are no great 
depths in the immediate vicinity of the islands. None of the closed fiords is so 
deep as many of the Scottish and Norwegian sea-lochs, the deepest soundings 
indicated upon the charts never exceeding 65 fathoms. The soundings, how- 
ever, are few in number, and we were told by the fishermen of considerably 
greater depths in some places than are shown on the chart. Thus we were 
assured that Skaalefiord is 40 or 50 fathoms deep. Immediately outside of the 
islands the sea-bottom appears to slope away somewhat gradually in all 
directions until a depth of upwards of 100 fathoms is reached at a distance of 
15 or 20 miles, more or less, from the nearest coast-line. 
* “Om Kullagene paa Feerderne samt Analyser af de i Danmark og de nordiske Bilande forekom- 
mende Kul,” K. D, Vidsk. Selsk. Oversigt, 1873, p. 147. 
+ Since the above was written, I have met with another paper referring to Suderée, by A. H. Stoxns, 
H.M. Inspector of Mines, in ‘Trans. Chesterfield and Derbyshire Institute of Mining, Civil, and 
Mechanical Engineers,” vol, ii. p. 320. The author seems to have examined only the mines and outcrops 
in the Trangjisvaag district, and he gives the average thickness of the coal seen by him, together with 
the heights above the sea-level of the various points at which the seam crops. He gives also analyses of 
the coal. He upholds the submarine origin of the volcanic rocks, and thinks the coal may be the 
remains of driftwood floated from America. 
t For the spelling of place-names, I have followed the Danish Chart, although the orthography 
differs from that used in other Danish works. Some of the places I refer to are not given on the chart, 
and for the spelling of these I am indebted to my colleague Mr Hetuanp. A number of the place- 
names in Suderée, I have taken from the map accompanying Professor Jounsrrur’s paper. 
