16 Johan Kiær. 



As suggested by Nathorst the Psilophyton flora at Bulandet 

 must be older than the Thursophyton flora at Hyen. 



Halle, in his later book on the Røragen flora, comes to the 

 conclusion that it may even be of the same age as this and so 

 belongs to the Lower Devonian. 



Now it would appear that the floral horizon, which 

 Kolderup has found at Bulandet (Lamholmen in Sørværet), must 

 be far up in the series, so high as about 2500 m. above the basal 

 breccia, judging by Kolderups map, while the floral horizon at 

 Svartvatn near Hyen cannot be much higher than 600 — 700 m. 



If the plants mentioned are index fossils, as it would appear 

 they are, there can hardly be any other explanation than that 

 the rock series at Bulandet and Hyen are altogether different. 

 This hypothesis is strengthened on examination of the strata of 

 the Orcadian group in North Scotland. The bottom most beds 

 here, the socalled Basement Group, is 460 m. thick and farthest 

 down consist of coarse sandstones, conglomerates and breccia, 

 and is by some authorities reckoned as belonging to the Lower 

 Devonian. Then farther up follows, with local unconformity, 

 the mighty upper series, with its rich fish horizons; this upper 

 series also begins with conglomerates and sandstones. Precisely 

 the same we find in the Shetland Isles, which is the Devonian 

 locality which is nearest ours. 



When we remember that the Devonian on the west coast of 

 Norway, both in regard to its flora & its fish remains, fit in with 

 the Orcadian Group of North Scotland and the Orkneys & Shet- 

 lands, this explanation does not seem improbable. It must, at any 

 rate, not be neglected in future research. It is by no means 

 improbable that the upper part has transgraded beyond the area 

 of the older strata. 



In the foregoing pages, I have described the first discovery 

 of fish remains in the Devonian formations of the west coast of 

 Norway. Fragmentary as it is, this discovery gives us, nevertheless, 

 a first glimpse of the animal life, which existed in the large lakes 

 in that part of the old red Nordland. Without doubt, there 

 were a large numbers of two kinds of ganoids of about 20—30 

 cm. in lenght, with tufted fins, but it is quite seldom any traces 

 of them are found in the coarse sediments. What animals have 

 these fishes lived on? Oi course it may have been other fish; but 



