^{page 256 note 1} This species is from another locality. See below.

^{page 257 note 1} In “Die Miocene Flora und Fauna Spitsbergens von Oswald Heer,” the following species taken from this locality are mentioned:—

With the exception of Equisetum arcticum, which forms the great mass of the fossil plants of this locality, these species occur only in single examples.

^{page 263 note 1} This occurrence of rounded pieces of coal, containing retinite, and probably formed during the Cretaceous period, is an interesting evidence of the immense extent of time which must have passed since the coal-seams began to be formed in Spitzbergen. I discovered a similar stratum during the Expedition of 1858, though I then viewed it as post-Miocene, on account of the pieces of coal containing retinite inclosed in the sandstone, which I then believed to be Miocene.

^{page 266 note 1} The only certain sign of glacial formations, perhaps, is a block of considerable size, which has been transported some distance from its original position.

In the deep ravines formed by streams, which in North-west Greenland cut through first the sand beds formed during the glacial period, lower down the Miocene, not glacial sand beds, we have an excellent opportunity of seeing the difference between them, which is very noticeable, inasmuch as erratic blocks are never absent in the former, but always in the latter. On the other hand, I am convinced that sharp-cornered stones, or stone fragments inclosed in considerable quantity in a bed of sand or clay (so-called Krosstensgrus), by no means afford certain evidence that it is of glacial origin. In this case the mistake is fallen into, as in so many other geological questions, by concluding, because on one occasion a cause A produced an effect B, that the effect B is always produced by the cause A. Gravel with sharp-cornered stone fragments is found, at least in the countries where frost tends to break up the rock surface, always at the foot of steep mountain sides clear of vegetation, and on Spitzbergen also on the flats, which in many places surround the foot of a mountain, extensive tracts, where the ground consists of such a gravel-bed formed by frost, which is increased by every spring flood, and then, being drenched with water, is exceedingly difficult to cross, and very destructive for the shoes. If I except a breccia, belonging to the Hecla Hook formation, which is found in many places, for example at the mouth of Bell Sound, there does not occur in the sedimentary strata of Spitzbergen or elsewhere any appearance of old Moraine gravelbeds.

^{page 267 note 1} Compare: Miocene Flora und Fauna Spitsbergens, p. 23. With reference to the vegetable remains from these strata described by Heer, it may here be stated, that since Heer's work was published, Betula nana has been found growing on north-east shore of Coal Bay.