Deposits containing fossil wood were discovered by M’Clintock, M’Clure and Armstrong in the southwestern part of Prince Patrick island and on the northwest side of Banks island. ‘At Ballast beach, on Banks land, large quantities of fossil and sub-fossil wood occur, which Prof. Heer refers to the Miocene in his Flora Fossilis Arctica, in which the following species are described by Cramer: Pinus MacClurii, Pinus Armstrongi, Cupressinoxylon pulchrum, Cupressinoxylon polyommatum, Cupressinoxylon dubium, Betula M’Clintockii. In many places along the western side of Ellesmere, in the depressions between the mountains, thick deposits of sand with embedded strata of lignite were found. Similar deposits were The knowledge of the Tertiary deposits of the east side of Ellesmere is summarized as follows by Dawson: ‘Small outlying areas of Tertiary (Miocene of Heer) are noted as occurring at Water-course bay, at the entrance of Lady Franklin sound, and in two places on the north shore of the sound. Coal is found in these beds in association with black shales and sandstones, and from collections made by Capt. Fielden and Dr. Moss, Prof. Heer describes thirty species of plants closely allied to the Spitzbergen Tertiary flora, and indicating rather colder conditions than are expressed by the character of the Disko island Tertiary plants. The coal appears to be an excellent fuel, containing only 2·01 per cent of water.’ ‘Capt. Greely’s expedition (1881 to 1884) though so important in its results from a geographical point of view, has added comparatively little to our geographical knowledge of Grinnell land and the northern coast of Greenland, a fact due to the absence of a geologist and the enforced abandonment of the specimens collected. From a careful perusal of Capt. Greely’s narrative ('Three Years of Arctic Service, 1886'), and from information obligingly supplied by him and by Lieut. Brainard, in answer to inquiries made by correspondence, some facts of importance are, however, brought out. The Tertiary coal-bearing formation is evidently much more widely spread in the part of Grinnell land, in the vicinity of Lady Franklin sound, than the previously quoted map of Messrs. Fielden and De Ranco would indicate, though it may probably be regarded as forming detached outliers (which I do not venture to outline) on the To the west of the narrows of Ponds inlet, the high hills of crystalline rock retreat from the southern shore of the inlet, leaving a wide plain of stratified sand, gravel and clay, which extends far to the west and southwest, and is penetrated by a Capt. Adams, of the whaler Diana, said that lignite was to be found in similar deposits near Cape Hay, on the east side of Bylot island, and also at Durban island on the eastern coast of Baffin island. There is little doubt that other areas of these Tertiary deposits occur on the Arctic islands, but owing to no lignite or fossils having been found in them they have not been separated from the drift and newer Post Tertiary deposits of sand, gravel and clay of these coasts. If Tertiary deposits were laid down on the lands of the western side of Hudson bay, there is little chance of more than small protected areas having escaped the intense glaciation to which the western shores of the bay were subjected. Any such remaining areas are now probably hidden beneath the mantle of drift so universal on the low lying portions of this region. |