GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



By LAUGE KOCH 



I 



THE districts through which the expedition travelled were, from a 

 geological point of view, practically unknown ; but as numerous fossils 

 had been found in Ellesmere Land, which was not far distant, there was 

 reason to expect interesting work for the geologist in North-West Greenland. 



Almost everywhere in Greenland one finds that the coast — similarly to the 

 Norwegian and Swedish " Skjargaard "* — consists of gneiss. This was also 

 the case in the southern part of the districts we surveyed right up to Cape 

 York. The regions to the south of Cape York in Melville Bay clearly illus- 

 trate what, for instance, Norway must have looked like in the Ice Period ; only 

 the outmost skerries and islets are free, whilst the entire coast is covered by 

 enormous glaciers, the crevassed surface of which is only occasionally broken 

 by steep mountain-tops which push through the ice as nunataks. To the 

 north of Cape York the land is less glaciated. The edge of the inland-ice lies 

 some distance into the country, and only through the larger valleys do glaciers 

 push down to the coast. Thereby the whole landscape changes in character, 

 and this change is further emphasized by the fact that the coast consists of 

 quite other kinds of rock. The gneiss which was found south of Cape York is 

 observed also in several places right up to Humboldt's Glacier, but as a rule it 

 is in this neighbourhood covered by sand and limestone, which form plateaux 

 with steep cliffs out towards the coast. 



Even at a distance these coastal mountains give to the landscape a peculiar 

 beauty. One sees at once that they must have been deposited in the ocean, 

 for they are very regularly stratified. The single strata vary in colours, some 

 are almost white, others are yellowish-grey, pink or brown, and through all 

 these strata one sees in many places black veins of diabase. The diabase once 

 burst through the layers as glowing lava, or forced its way between them, 

 and now lies as a protective cover above the lower layers. This fact is plainly 

 visible at Thule, where the upper stratum of the so-called " Camp Mountain " 

 consists of a diabasic cover, which has protected the underlying sand and 

 limestone. 



If one examines these layers more closely, one finds at once that they 

 must have been deposited in shallow water. In several places the lowest layers 

 of sandstone are seen right above the gneiss. They then form a conglomerate 

 with greater and smaller fragments of the underlying gneiss. These blocks 

 are, as a rule, beautifully rolled and polished, like pebbles. Thus the lower 

 layers are pure beach formations ; but also the superincumbent sandstone is 

 deposited in shallow water, for many of the strata are beautifully furrowed 

 by the beat of the waves, as we see it nowadays on a good bathing beach. 



* " Skjaergaard " : the belt of rocks and islands girding the coast. — Trans. 



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