1875 PROVEN. 29 



peninsula of Svarten Huk, are apparently analogous in 

 their formation to Disco Island and the Noursoak Penin- 

 sula. A line drawn W. and E. through the settlement 

 of Proven and extended inland would roughly define 

 the limit of the granitoid rocks from those of later 

 origin. To the northward along the coast, ice- worn 

 mountains, plentifully sprinkled with enormous erra- 

 tics, rise in endless succession ; southward the flat- 

 topped hills, the horizontal bedding and varied coloured 

 strata, with bands of columnar basalt, show that the 

 land has, from some cause or other, escaped the tre- 

 mendous degradation that has obliterated every trace 

 of the softer tertiary strata, which in all probability 

 at some former period covered the gneiss hills to 

 the north of Proven. The whole of the island is be- 

 strewed with erratics, many of prodigious size ; they 

 are chiefly gneiss, granites, and syenites, but on the 

 very summit of the island a few boulders of basalt were 

 observed. The flora of Proven is by no means as rich 

 as that of Disco, but Betula nana, the dwarf birch of 

 the Arctic zone, was common. Snow-buntings were 

 numerous, and by this date the young in a nest were 

 well fledged ; several parties of young wheatears 

 (Saxicola cenanthe) were flying about the rocks near the 

 shore, their familiar ' chuck chuck ' resounding on all 

 sides. 



My chief object in visiting Proven was to endeavour 

 to obtain the services of Hans Heindrich, the Green- 

 lander who had previously accompanied three American 

 expeditions to Smith Sound. On our arrival he was 

 absent in charge of a boat, but having seen the ships 

 approaching, he returned to the settlement with all 



