TERTIARY.

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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 found in the lowlands east of Blaamanden, and at the head of Stenkulfjord in Baumann fjord. In addition to the lignite, masses of slaty clay were found in the latter place, in which were well preserved remains of Sequoia Langsdorfii, Taxodium distichum var. miocenum and some others, well known witnesses to a southern vegetation in these regions in a geologically late period, i.e., the Miocene.’

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 Cape Rawson beds, shown by these authors to characterize the region generally. Bituminous coal was found at Lincoln bay, half a degree north of the mouth of Lady Franklin sound, on the east Grinnell land coast, in different parts of the Bellows valley (which runs inland to the north of the same sound) to the head, and in the neighbourhood of Lake Hazen, to the westward, by Capt. Greely. Lieut. Brainard also describes in an appendix a fossil forest discovered by him in Archer fiord, a few miles west of Cape Baird, which, with the associated rocks, is without doubt referable to the Tertiary. Toward the head of Chandler fiord (running west of Lady Franklin sound) Greely mentions high cliffs of ‘schistose slate,’ and in Ruggles river, the outlet of Lake Hazen, large slabs of ‘slate,’ which had been used by the Eskimos in building their huts. Brainard speaks of the cliffs of Beatrix bay as dark, those of Ella bay as very light, in colour. These bays constitute the termination of Archer fiord. He remembers the cliffs on Musk-ox valley to have been again of dark colours. Respecting Greely fiord, on the west coast of Grinnell land, he quotes from his diary: ‘On the north shore of this fiord the line of cliffs presents a feature of marked peculiarity; horizontal lines or strata of different colours run uniformly for miles along their face.’ He adds: ‘The predominating colours in these lines and of the cliffs was a pale-yellow. On the south side, where we were camped, the cliffs were of about the same colour as those spoken of above, but the strata were not noticed. They were from 1,500 to 8,000 feet above the sea-level, and presented a castellated appearance. Fossils in great numbers were found here.’

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 number of deep bays on that side of the inlet. This plain is indented by all the water-courses traversing it, and in the beds of the principal streams broken lignite is found, evidently fallen from beds of that mineral in the banks above. The presence of lignite in these stratified deposits points to their being Tertiary in age, and corresponding with the northern areas of this formation already described as lying undisturbed in the wide valleys of the older rocks. This area in the northern part of Baffin island is, according to the natives, quite extensive, and probably extends in a southwest direction to the lowlands of the northern and western sides of Fox channel.

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.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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