Abstract
IV.
Vardö Island, † at the end of a long promontory in the polar basin, is described by Mr. Campbell, of Islay, ‡ as consisting of metamorphic slates, dipping at 45°, and striking with the hollows and ridges north and south, ground into shape by ice, but since submerged and wave-worn; drifts packed and rolled by the sea are left in a grass-grown raised beach at 60 feet, a peat-covered beach at 100 feet, and rolled stones occur on the summit level of the island, 220 feet above the sea, resting on red sandstones, with fossil markings in concentric rings. At 30 feet above the sea occurred a “storm beach,” with large and sub-angular stones, sweeping in a crescent round the bay, the fortress of Vardo, and the church of Vadso. He describes it as built on coral sand, and refers to the warm equatorial current affecting the climate in the polar basin to lat. 80° in Spitzbergren, and to long. 66° E. in Novaya Zemlya, which enables a luxuriant vegetation to live on the shore at Yeredik, about 70° N., in spite of the winter's darkness.
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DE RANCE, C. Arctic Geology * . Nature 11, 508–509 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/011508a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/011508a0