44 
REVIEWS. 
Mr. Salter adds :— 
“ That several of the Carboniferous fossils ( Productus Cora , Spirifer Keilhavii ) were 
found on the top of Exmouth Island itself, the sandstone cliffs of which are capped by 
the limestone; and close upon this again lie the Ichthyosaurian bones.” 
The manner in which the Lias fossils occur in Prince Patrick’s Island 
at Point "Wilkie (Latitude, 76° 20' 1ST.; Longitude, 117° 20' W.) is 
thus described by M‘Clintock :— 
“ On landing, I found the beach low, composed of mud, with the footprints of animals 
frozen in it. A few hundred yards from the beach there are steep hills, about 150 feet 
in height, and upon the sides of these, in reddish-coloured limestone, casts of fossil shells 
abound. Inland of these, the ordinary pale carboniferous sandstone and cherty limestone 
reappeared. The fossils are all small, and of only a few varieties, some being Ammo¬ 
nites, but the greater part Bivalves. They differed from any I had met with before, and 
the rock was almost brick-red. Here, also, I picked up what appeared to be a portion 
of a fossil bone ( Ichthyosaurus ?), only part of it appearing out of the fragment of the 
rock. 
“ Point Wilkie appears to be an isolated patch of Liassic age, resting upon carboni¬ 
ferous sandstones and limestones, with bands of chert, of the same age as the limestones 
and sandstones of Melville Island. The eastern shore of Intrepid Inlet is composed of 
this formation ; while the western, rising into hills and terraces, is of the underlying Car¬ 
boniferous epoch. At the western side of Intrepid Inlet I found upon the ice a conside¬ 
rable quantity of white asbestos, but did not ascertain from whence it had been brought.” 
The fossils thus found by Captain M‘Clintock are figured and de¬ 
scribed by Professor Haughton (Plate IX.), and consist of an Ammonite, 
Monotis, Pleurotomaria, Turbo, and Xucula. 
Respecting these fossils Professor Haughton observes — 
“ The discovery of such fossils in situ , in 76° North latitude, is calculated to throw 
considerable doubt upon the theories of climate which would account for all past changes 
of temperature by alterations in the relative position of land and water on the earth’s 
surface. No attempt, that I am aware of, has ever been made to calculate in numbers 
the change of temperature possible in consequence of changes of position of land and 
water ; and from some incomplete calculations 1 have myself made on the subject, I think 
it highly improbable that such causes could have ever produced a temperature in the sea 
at 76° North latitude, which would allow of the existence of Ammonites, especially Am¬ 
monites so like those that lived at the same time in the tropical warm seas of the south 
of England and France, at the close of the Liassic, and commencement of the lower Oo¬ 
litic period.” 
Captain MtClintock’s ice-travels are accompaniedby a geological map, 
embodying the principal results of the exploring expeditions. One of 
the most interesting features of this map is the line of outcrop of the 
Arctic coal-beds, extending E.X.E. fromBanks’ Land to Bathurst Island. 
The character of the coal itself is thus described, p. 30 :— 
u The coal found in the Arctic regions, excepting that brought from Disco Island, 
West Greenland, which is of tertiary origin, presents everywhere the same characters, 
wliich are somewhat remarkable. It is of a brownish colour and lignaceous texture, in 
fine layers of brown coal and jet-black glossy coal interstratified in delicate bands not 
thicker than paper. It has a w r oody ring under the hammer, recalling the peculiar clink 
of some of the valuable gas coals of Scotland. It burns with a dense smoke and brilliant 
flame, and would make an excellent gas coal; and, in fact, it resembles in many 1 ’espects 
some varieties of the coal which has acquired such celebrity in the Scotch and Prussian 
law courts, under the title of the Torbane Hill mineral.” 
