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VII. — A Carboniferous Fauna from Nowaja Semlja, collected by Dr W. S. Bruce. 

 By G. W. Lee, D.Sc, H.M. Geological Survey. With Notes on the Corals by 

 R. Gk Carruthers. Communicated by Dr Horne, F.R.S. (With 2 Plates.) 



(MS. received May 29, 1909. Read July 5, 1909. Issued separately September 24, 1909.) 



Introduction. 



The present paper is based on the study of a suite of fossils collected in 1898 by 

 Dr W. S. Bruce, during a cruise with Major Andrew Coats in the Barents Sea, on 

 board the yacht Blencathra. 



The fossils were found in situ in a cliff at the extremity of Cape Cherney, a promon- 

 tory situated on the west coast of Southern Nowaja Semlja, in lat. 70° 49' and long. 

 56° 37'. Contrary to what often obtains in the case of materials collected by explorers, 

 they are all from the same bed, a fact which greatly increases the value of the collection, 

 as there is thus no possibility of a mixing of forms from different horizons. 



The rock is a compact, brownish-grey limestone, emitting a pronounced fetid odour 

 when struck with a hammer. Numerous thin sections and the residue left after attack 

 by acid show that clastic minerals are small and poorly represented, and it is interesting 

 to note that small patches of violet fluorite, of secondary origin, occasionally fill in 

 cavities in the rock, or replace the aragonite of some of the shells. 



The limestone is essentially foraminiferal, with thin crinoidal layers, and Dr Bruce 

 tells me that in the field its characteristic feature is the presence of a very large shell 

 [Productus giganteus (Mart.)] ; at one spot in that same bed he also observed a large 

 branching body, which may possibly represent a drifted stigmarian root. 



Most of the fossils are in a perfect state of preservation, but many suffered during 

 the process of developing from the matrix, owing to their small size. In nearly every 

 case the original shell-substance is preserved, calcite pseudomorphs occurring only in 

 some of the Gasteropods; but even in this case the minutest details of ornamentation are 

 reproduced. I wish here to emphasise the fact that all the fossils must be regarded as 

 contemporaneous, there being no evidence of any having been " remanie." 



An unusual interest attaches to the fauna collected by Dr Bruce, as it proves the 

 hitherto unrecorded presence of marine Lower Carboniferous rocks in Nowaja Semlja ; 

 that is to say, we know now for the first time that the Lower Carboniferous sea did extend 

 to such high latitudes in the western hemisphere ; this discovery has therefore more 

 than a merely local importance, as it entails considerable modifications in our theoretical 

 conceptions of the Arctic Lower Carboniferous Continent. For the benefit of those who 

 may not be conversant with Arctic geology, I will add that geologists who have a special 

 knowledge of the Upper Palaeozoic formations of these regions have pointed out in 



TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. XLVII. PART I. (NO. 7). 22 



