Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1963, Page 77

Fossil Metasequoia From Mikines,
Faroe Islands.
By Jóannes Rasmussen and B. Eske Koch.
I
Description of site.
By Jóannes Rasmussen.
Not very many fossil plants have been found in the
Faroes till now. On the island of Suðuroy and on the
island of Mykines some impressions of leaves have appeared,
and the coals on the Suðuroy display some coalified stems
and twigs. In tufaceous clay a few more or less indistinct
impressions of fossil plant remains have been observed
(NoesNygaard 1940).
Literature on Faroese geology contains only two short
treatises dealing with fossil plants. Hartz (1903) treats
and explains the find of fossil plants on the Mykines in
1901 by first lieutenant Godfred Hansen, and R. Rasmussen
(1925) gives an account of the fossil plants taken from the
same place, when in spring 1925 a site for a new boat=
house was dug into the cliff on the south side of the point
of Fjørudalsnev, where the other boaLhouses are situ*
ated. In summer 1925 R. Rasmussen visited the place
himself, and it is his material which is developped here.
In order to investigate the present possibilities of coU
lecting some more material, the undersigned writers visited
the place in summer 1963. Unfortunately, the chances of
getting at the fossil bearing bed appeared to be very poor.