UPERNIVIK ISLAND 87 



departure from the more permanent Settlement the 

 roof of the winter house is removed and nature is 

 left to do the much needed spring-cleaning and 

 airing. My intention was to take a photograph of 

 a typical, roofless house and three Eskimo women 

 were invited by signs to come into the picture. 

 Unfortunately, so far at least as the prospect of 

 obtaining a satisfactory photograph of the building 

 was concerned, the whole female population formed 

 up in line (Fig. 39). 



From the beds of shale exposed in the cliffs in 

 the foreground, shown in Fig. 40, above the beach 

 littered with boulders, several impressions of fossil 

 plants (Cretaceous) were collected, including many 

 beautifully preserved leaves of Ginkgo (the Maiden- 

 hair tree) and pieces of the large fronds of a Cycad, 

 a plant related to the so-called Sago Palms, the 

 majority of which flourish in the Tropics. An 

 almost vertical dyke thrust through the old sedi- 

 ments forms a prominent feature on the left. The 

 two massive mountains in the distance are portions 

 of the highlands bordering the western edge of 

 the Umanak Fjord, composed of some of the oldest 

 rocks in Greenland. 



On one part of the south coast of Upernivik 

 Island the heterogeneous collection of boulders, 

 which are the products of ice-action when the 

 climatic conditions were more severe and the 

 inland ice was greater in extent and glaciers were 

 larger, presented interesting geological problems. 



A short distance from the Settlement on Uper- 

 nivik Island the strata of sandstone and shale are 



