Barrow Strait region, some of them, iiideed, only speaking of the extreme scarcity 
of plantlife there, compared to the (Archaean) region to the east, and also to the 
west (in the area of younger strata), some, however, directly setting down the poor 
and stunted vegetation as a feature belonging to the hmestone soil. But the flora 
and vegetation of Victoria Land are not poor at all, and even if the more southern 
site may in some measure account for this, still I am inclined to think, that younger 
deposits are to be found there, perhaps as remnauts overlying the Silurian strata 
— if such exist there. Finally it is to be mentioned, that Silurian deposits appear 
in Eilesmereland along the western part of Jones Sound and probably form a narrow 
strip through the interiör, as they are known again from the north side of Hayes 
Sound up along tlie shore of the Kane Basin. 
Devonian rocks were not known from the Arctic Archipelago before Schei 
pointed out their occurrence in southwestern Eilesmereland, North Kent, and the 
adjacent parts of North Devon, but they may perhaps have a wider range. The 
Devonian sandstones and hmestones are not very favorable for the development of 
vegetation, but still they are better than the Silurian strata, especially where 
deposits of clay are formed by their disintegration. Some plants, for instance 
Ranunmlus Snhinei and Potenfilla Vahliana seem to prefer this soil. 
Rocks of the Carboniferous system take a large part in the building up of 
the Arctic Islands; of the southwestern district they form at least the whole nor- 
thern portion, perhaps they may, however, be considerably wider distributed in both 
Banks and Victoria Land. Farther to the north they appear again in Prince Patrick 
Island and perhaps form also that part of the island from which only sand of 
unknown age is known. Melville Island is entirely built up of rocks of this system, 
as also Eglington, Byam Martin, Batliurst, the north western part of Cornwallis Island, 
and Grinnell Peuinsula in N. Devon. In Eilesmereland and Heiberg Island only 
a few isolated occurrences of Carboniferous rocks are known. The Carboniferous 
strata consist partly of white closegrained sandstone (as it seems rather like the 
Devonian sandstone of Eilesmereland), very frequently with beds of coal, and a 
younger limestone. Both form a rather favorable soil for plantlife, as shown by 
the fäet that several of the richest islandfloras are to be found within their area. 
Also we have many notes about a close and thriving vegetation just from the 
western Islands. 
Mesozoic strata, partly classified as Liassic, appear along the western coast of 
Eilesmereland and the eastern of Heiberg Island, where they are predominating, 
and besides along the Kennedy and Robson Channels as well as in North Cornwall 
and some smaller islands in the neighbourhood, and finally in isolated patches on 
the northwestern islands. The geology of the Ringnes and Finlay Islands is enti- 
rely unknown. The Mesozoic strata seem generally to give a good soil for vegeta- 
tion, as also the Tertiary, found in some isolated places in the northern islands and 
oceupying a small part of the northwestern Banks Land coast. 
