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ot yellowish finely-laminated slates. Erratics, so far as his oppor- 
tunities permitted him to judge, were of rare occurrence, hut he 
found many smaller pieces of petrified wood allied to lignite. 
Ihc collection of rocks brought back by Leigh-Smith’s expedi- 
tion, and the photographs of the newly discovered parts, so far as 
I have had the privilege of examining them, bear out very well 
Payer’s description ; but when he stetes that Eranz-Josef Land, even 
in summer, is buried under perpetual snow, and “ even the steepest 
walls of rock were covered with ice,” it must be remembered that 
Payor’s acquaintance with Franz-Josef Land commenced in October, 
1873, and ended in Juno of the following year, at which time the 
signs of the summer episode are hardly discernible in polar 
regions — from the middle of J uly to the middle of August is the 
period during which the snowy mantle of the land reaches its 
minimum ; and explains why Leigh-Smith’s photographs show far 
more extensive surfiices of rock exposure than I had been led to 
expect from Payer’s descriptions. 
Most of the fossiliferous specimens brought back by Lcigh- 
Smith were haiulcd over to ^Ir. Etheridge for description. One 
that I have hero this evening shows plant impressions, and from 
the imperfect examination that I have been able to make of it, 1 
would venture to say that it is “ a dark ashy rock probably it is 
a basaltic dust or mud, and if so, it would agree iu many 
respects with strata found intercalated with the basalts of East 
Greenland. The presence of the vegetable remains shows that the 
volcanic agency which constructed the rocks of Franz-Josef Land 
must have been intermittent in action, as a sufficient lajise of time 
must have e.xistcd between the formation of the under-bed of 
biisalt, and the deposition of the ash in the form of dust or mud, 
to admit of a plant growth. 
Some of the rocks from Snow-bird Island and Eii-a Harbour 
which I have seen ai-e certainly basalts. All that were brought 
back have been entrusted to Professor Bonney, F.P.S., for exami- 
nation, and we may look forward with interest to what ^Ir. Etheridge 
and he will have to tell us on the subject. 
Payer informs us that in Franz-Josef Land he observed the 
characteristic signs of upheaval in the terraced beaches of Austria 
Sound. This rapid and progressive elevation of the whole circum- 
polar area is very remarkable. It is so patent, that the most 
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