78 
The clay-deposits of the terraces have yielded no organic 
remains. Subfossil shells have beeu found in the gravel-layers 
from the latest stage of the reelevation at only two places, viz. 
KollafjarOarnes and Reykjahver. At Kollafjarbarnes they have been 
found in layers at about 16 meters above level of the sea, the 
molluscfauna of which layers is identical with that existing in West- 
Iceland at present. At Reykjahver they have been found at 9 
10 meters above sea-level, where molluscs of the same species, 
which at present occur at that coast, are to be found. Irom 
these two isolated occurrences we dåre not, however, at present 
draw any definite conclusions with regard to the temperatuie of 
the period in question, still less as there is a possibility that the 
shells from these localities are derivatives. 
2. Later another subsidence — the Purpurasub- 
sidence — takes place at Hunafloi. When the sea has 
risen to c. 4 meters above the present sea-level, this 
submergence has reached its maximum, whereafter the sea giadually 
retreats till it has reached its present level. 
During this period the sea covers terrestial deposits, as peat 
and mould, with gravel, sand, shells and drifttimber. The sea 
undermines the old terraces by which processes eliffs are formed, 
which in connection with extensive strand-walls indicate the upper 
limit of the subsidence. 
As yet nothing can be said with certainty about the tempeia- 
ture during the very subsidence, as no fossils that may be i efeu ed 
to that period have been found. But from the ensuing emergence 
there is a series of fossiliferous deposits all along the coast. The 
molluscfauna of these deposits show that the temperature of 
the sea in Hunafloi already during the maximum sub¬ 
sidence has been somewhat higher than of present, 
or much the same as it is now-a-days at the west- 
coast of Iceland (the presence of Purpura lapillus L., Zirphæa 
crispata L., the lacking of Pecten islandicus Milil etc.). Gradually 
as the sea retreats the temperature gets lower, and during the last 
