ARCTIC YOYAGES. 
45 
Among the fossils brought home by Captain McClure from Banks’ 
Land, and deposited by him in the Museum of the Boyal Dublin Society, 
is one considered by Mr. Haughton to be identical with Terebratula 
asp era (Schlotheim). In reference to this fossil the following remarks 
are made respecting the probable age of the Arctic coal-beds:— 
“ This interesting Brachiopod was found in limestone by Captain M‘Clure, at the 
Princess Royal Islands, in the Prince of Wales’ Strait, between Baring Island and Prince 
Albert Land. I have no hesitation in pronouncing it to be identical with Sclilotheim’s 
fossil, which is found in the greatest abundance at Gerolstein, in the Eifel. Banks’ Land, 
or Baring Island, is composed of sandstone, similar to that at Byam Martin’s Island, and 
at the Bay of Mercy. This sandstone contains beds of coal, apparently the continuation 
of the well-known coal-beds of Melville Island. It is a remarkable fact, that these car¬ 
boniferous sandstones underlie beds of undoubtedly Carboniferous Limestone type; and 
at Byam Martin’s Island, where fossils are found in this sandstone, they are allied to 
Atrypafallax and other forms characteristic of the lower sandstones of the Carboniferous 
epoch. It is, therefore, highly probable that the coal-beds of Melville Island are very 
low down in the series’, and do not correspond in geological position with the coal-beds of 
South Wales, which rest on the summit of the carboniferous beds. It is interesting to 
find at Princess Royal Island, where, from the general strike of the beds, we should 
expect to find the Silurian limestone underlying tbe coal-bearing sandstones, that this 
limestone does occur, and contains a fossil, T. aspera, eminently characteristic of the 
Eifelian beds of Germany, which form, in that country, the upper Silurian strata.” 
We cannot part company witb Sir Edward Belcher without expres¬ 
sing our regret that he has felt it necessary to make himself so promi¬ 
nent a figure in the foreground of the picture of Arctic voyaging that 
he has sketched; and we excuse him by the supposition that many of 
his pages were only designed to meet the eye of partial friends, and have 
been printed by mistake. What interest, for example, can he have 
expected the general reading public to take in the following ?— 
“ I cannot play the humorous or the buffoon, but truth, simple truth alone, in such 
pleasant terms as I can reduce it to, will prevail. I have nothing to gain and nothing 
to fear: my own family motto must guide me throughout. Those who despise ‘ Loya 
au mort’ and loyal to facts must not depend too much for amusement in this narrative. 
“ Such, then, being my feelings, I proceed, in charity with all men, not perfect 
myself, and willing to overlook all faults in others, provided they do not, when I tell 
them of it, still continue to tread upon my corns.” 
In the foregoing Sir Edward kindly hints to his readers that his 
brother officers, who have written Arctic experiences, have played the 
buffoon and sacrificed truth; we are also made aware of the motto of 
the great Belcher family, and informed that the writer possesses callo¬ 
sities, vulgarly called corns, but whether in his mind or on his body 
does not appear. 
Among the many speculations hazarded respecting Sir John Franklin 
and his companions, a favourite, some years ago, was one which sup¬ 
posed them to be capable of existing for an indefinite period on the game, 
bears, seals, walruses, &c., of the Parry Islands and adjoining seas. This 
is now well known to be an impossibility in the greater part of these 
regions, and especially so in the direction of the Magnetic Pole, which 
is nearly coincident (as it ought to be), with the American Pole of maxi¬ 
mum cold. The following facts respecting North Somerset, as compared 
