A survey of the Phytogeography of the Arctic American Archipelago 29 
About the post-Tertiary deposits there is not much to be said, even if I shall 
ha ve to come back to them again låter. Elder maps of glaciation, indeed, generally 
show a continuous icesheet all over the Arctic Islands, but in fact no signs pointing 
out the former existence of a total glaciation are actually found in the Islands. 
About Ellesmereland Schei says »there exist no signs of ridging, no strise, and 
no groovings» and further »there are no materials lying on those parts of the 
country which are not now glaciated that could with any probability be considered 
to result from the action of glaciers» (Geol. Observ., p. 9), and M'Millan (Report, 
p. 461) only has found strise in a siiigle pläce in Melville Island, where they may, 
however, »be the result of local glaciers when cHmate conditions were more severe». 
The loose deposits covering considerable stretches of the present islands are either 
due to disintegration of the rock in situ, or, in a far larger measure, of marine 
origin, sediments from a ti me when the sea stood considerably higher than at 
present. In Ellesmereland Schei has noted raised beaches and marine terraces up 
to 600 feet above present sealevel, and similar observations are made in other 
quarters. That this submergence of the land has taken place in a rather late time, 
or that at least the emergence not goes very far back, is shown by numerous finds 
of driftwood and of shells, belonging to species now living in the neighbourhood, 
up to a considerable altitude over the present shoreUne. In the reports of the 
different sledging-expeditions during the FRANKLiN-search there are numerous notes 
on discoveries of driftwood in various sites above the beach, and in a great many 
cases this wood, which was frequently used as fuel or for other purposes, is expressly 
stated to have been quite fresh even when found at a considerable altitude. Notwith- 
standing the extreme slowness of decay in such a climate, these deposits of wood 
must decidedly be, geologically speaking, of a rather late date. In western Elles- 
mereland IsACHSEN found numerous pieces of wood about 200 — 300 feet above 
sealevel and far inland (Ingvabsson, Treibhölzer, p. 9). Among the specimens I 
did collect myself there is oue which Ingvaksson has not seen, as it was of no 
in terest for bis research. I will mention it here because it shows that the land is 
still emerging. It consistecl of a large stave of oak from a cask, consequently it 
cannot have floated more than a very short distance to the place where it was 
found, in the interiör of the Goose Fjord on the southern coast. Doubtless it has 
come from a whaler, visiting Jones Sound, but the whalefishery in that region 
hardly dates back longer than to 1840. Now this piece of oak lay, indeed, on the 
shore, but still so far up that it had got covered with lichens and mosses, about 
two or three feet above highwater mark. 
About the occurrence of shells M'Millan says, indeed, {1. c, p. 460) »The 
findiug of shells of hving species proves httle regarding a former submergence of 
the land, for these may have been carried to their present position by sea-birds; so 
with boues — with the exception of the largest — of sea animals, some of wich 
where found about a mile inland». Indeed, guUs and other birds may carry single 
shells far inland, as is to be seen at any seacoast, but I think the statement of 
Luuds Universitets Ärt«krift, N. F. Afd. 2. Bd. 9. 4 
