Geology of the Coasts of the Arctic Lands visited by the late British Expedition under Captain Sir George Nares, R.N., K.C.B., F.R.S.

Abstract

T he Laurentian rocks described by Sir William Logan occupy an area of 200,000 square miles in Canada, and attain a thickness of 40,000 feet in two series, the one unconformable to the other, and, stretching northwards, form the fundamental rocks of the Polar area. Fringing the North-American coast they plunge beneath the Silurians and Carboniferous rocks of the Parry archipelago, reappear in the gneiss cliffs of Cape Isabella, form the entire coast of Ellesmere Land, rising to heights of 2000 feet, and underlie the Miocene rocks of Port Foulke, the Miocene and Cretaceous rocks of Disco Island, Noursoak peninsula, and the Oolites of Pendulum Island, in East Greenland. Cape-Rawson Beds .—The vast series of ancient rocks occupying the country between Scoresby Bay and Cape Cresswell, in lat. 82° 40' N., appear to represent in time the Huronian epoch of North America; for they are evidently newer than the gneiss and crystalline rocks of the Laurentian, and older than the fossiliferous Silurians. In Nova Scotia Prof. Yule Hind has shown that the Laurentian gneiss is unconformably overlain by micaceous schists, waterworn quartz-pebbles, and gneiss-conglomerate, made up of fragments of the ancient rocks beneath, proving the very ancient period to which the metamorphism of the gneiss must be referred; and he has also shown that these gneissic conglomerates are further overlain by 9000 feet of quartzites, grits, black slates, and thin beds of auriferous quartz, which, in their turn, are probably unconformable with the gneissoid conglomerates beneath. The black slates, often gold-bearing, attain

Northern Ellesmere Island, 1953 And 1954

“…Markham, of the same expedition, travelling northward .from Cape Joseph Henry, reached latitude 83'20N., after the most arduous relaying over mountainous pressure ice, and Egerton journeyed up the valley of Wood River, southwest of winter quarters, to within sight of the ice cap of the United States Range. The members of the sledge parties, with few exceptions, suffered severely from scurvy, which caused the loss of t w o of the Alert's men and the abandonment of Nares's plans for a second season (Parliamentary Paper, 1877;Nares, 1878;Feilden and De Rance, 1878).…”

The Evolution of Arctic Marine Mammals

“…These Quebec and Ontario specimens too indicate a more southerly range for bearded seals in eastern North America toward the end of the Pleistocene (Harington 2003b:391). Based on information (''Fossil remains'' of unspecified nature from ''Post-tertiary Beds'') in Feilden (1877) and Feilden and De Rance (1878), Ray et al (1982) accept Kane Valley (Station Number 3), Ellesmere Island, Nunavut (82833 0 , approximately 648 W) as a valid Pleistocene record of the bearded seal, although I think that an Early Holocene age is more likely (Harington 1990:146).…”

Henry Wemyss Feilden, naturalist on HMSAlert1875–1876

“…In geology, he explored the west coast of Robeson Channel and the north coast of Ellesmere Island; his findings remained the major ones for this area until 1953 (Feilden and Ranee 1878, Hattersley-Smith 1976, Blackadar 1954). His geological notes and sketches were careful and informed, and incorporated detailed sketches, for example one made on 27 March 1876 showing folding of beds of argillaceous sandstone and clay slates (Figurel).…”