A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 179 



the effects of the sun on the rocks of Disko. It being ex- 

 pedient to make the ship fast to a berg, an anchor was 

 buried in a large one near ; but, having started from its 

 fastening, sunk to the bottom ; and being hauled up, had a 



different conclusion from that drawn by a geologist of eminence. If 

 peaked mountains be always granitic, that of Teneriffe should be so ; 

 the southern mountains of Greenland ought to be of the same material ; 

 so should that along the coast down to Joris Bay, and Koll Reef. But 

 the wildly torn materials of the Greenland coast seem to defy such 

 speculation. Greenland has its peaked mountains, not of granitic 

 substance superiorly, but as at Disko, where the land is high and level, 

 generally trap, floetz trap, or felspar, with all the intermediate quartzy 

 combinations, and such changes of colour, as the hitherto unexplained 

 occurrence of metallic presence may occasion. Yet suppose one en- 

 deavouring to determine, from a distance, their existence, as being 

 granitic, from a view of their conical summits, a desire to ascertain the 

 universal application of this dogma to the northern regions should 

 induce a more satisfactory inquiry. It is not at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, where there is table land, nor at Teneriffe, which is much 

 higher, nor in the Hebrides, nor Orkney Islands, nor in Iceland or the 

 Shetland Isles, that granite is to be traced by peaked eminence. The 

 aggregation of that rock must depend upon other principles than those 

 of elevation ; and whichever theory maintains that aggregation best, is 

 most entitled to respect. Invariably near the highest mark of tide in 

 this bay, the feltspar rock, of yellowish red, is present ; and above it, 

 the gfey-brown basalt. 



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