J] 
- semblance. The same name is 
__ tives to white calcareous spar: 
- variety, unmixed with any other mineral. 
GREENLAND. 
gneiss: There are very few instances where they are Greenland. 
not found in the vicinity of each other, and frequently ““"V"" 
iss are more flat and 
of the gneiss is thick ‘and thin slaty ; its felspar gene- 
Tally -grey and pearl-white, seldom flesh-red, fine 
granular : its mica grey, pinchbeck-brown, and black- 
ish brown : it contains but little ash- quartz. The 
valleys and clefts round the mountains are filled with 
rhomboidal fragments, many of them of immense size. 
The smaller ts: were used by the old Norwegians, 
with mica slate, hornblende slaty, and slaty claystone, to 
build their houses; the walls of which, although not 
cemented, after a lapse of several centuries, still brave 
the power of this destructive climate. 
- Gneiss constitutes one of the most elevated points of 
this extensive coast, viz. the mountain Kingitlorsoak, 
situated in the 62d of latitude. It is covered 
‘with mica slate from the shore to a heighth of about 
1000 feet above the level of the sea, where the gneiss 
again becomes visible, and continues to a heighth of 
nearly $000 feet. The top of this mountain is similar 
in shape to the roof of a house, where the ridge is not 
much elevated. It is entirely free from snow in summer, 
except a few small spots, where it rests in the hollows 
of its summit. 
The mica slate resting w 
riety of beds of. hornbl 
stein) with small 
the gueiss presents a va- 
slate, whitestone, (weiss- 
‘tale-slate,. with common and 
indurated tale, potstone, actynolite, and precious splin- 
tery serpentine. The gneiss is traversed with nume- 
rous veins of greenstone, varying in thickness from one 
inch to six feet. The greenstone which occurs in the 
veins resembles basalt ; but it is more crystalline in its 
texture, lighter in its colour, and not quite so hard. 
Common schorl, tourmaline, and precious garnet, oc- 
cur imbedded in gneiss. _ It contains veins of tinstone, 
accompanied by arsenical pyrites, wolfram, fluor, and 
quartz, in a firth, called Arksat, situated about thirty 
leagues from the colony of Juliana-Hope, towards north- 
east. The same place is remarkable for two thin layers 
’ of cryolite resting —— and it is the only place 
where this mineral therto been found. One of 
these layers contains the snow white and greyish white 
Its thick- 
ness varies from one foot to: two feet and a half, and it 
is divided from the underlying gneiss by a thin layer of 
mica, always in a state of disi tion. The other 
variety is of a yellowish brown colour passing into tile- 
red. It occurs along with iron pyrites, liver-brown 
sparry iron ore copanlineith in rhombs, earthy cryolite, 
quartz, and foliated fluor, earthy fluor, and 
galena. It is remarkable, that the galena is sometimes 
coated with a ish white sulphureous crust, which 
burns in the of a candle with ‘a bluish colour, 
emitting a sulphureous smell. * 
- These layers'of cryolite are situated very near each 
other, only separated by a small ridge of gneiss, of a 
i de Prt both are washed at high water by 
‘the: most: exposed, .the superin- 
i pubeoliding- bese removal, The white cry- 
olite, seen at'a distance, presents the appearance of a 
uired, oan roe ty vgn cubes. ‘Thi 
qu from: ition, of cubes, This 
‘mineral is called by the Greenlanders orsuksikscet, from 
the word orksuk, blubber, to’ which it bears some re- 
also given by the na- 
8. Mica Stare is likewise-one of the: most common 
“rocks in Greenland, and an inseparable companion of 
491 
in contact. Mica slate forms in this country a very ex-~ 
tensive series of insulated mountains, which never rise 
to a considerable height, and appear generally to rest 
upon gneiss. Mica slate is frequently visible on the 
shores, and the gneiss itself forms also very extensive 
beds in it at Disko bay, where the white-stone also oc- 
curs in beds, The Greenlandish mica slate abounds in 
mica; it is generally thin-slaty, and only thick-slaty 
when the quartz prevails. Sometimes it an undu- 
lating aspect ; but when this is the case, it into 
primitive clay slate. The mica of this mica slate is 
mostly greyish-black and pinchbeck-brown, passing in- 
to brownish-black, seldom silver-white. Its quartz is 
pearl-grey. It is sometimes mingled with nodules of 
pearl-grey felspar, from the size of a pea to that of an 
orange, and this gives it the appearance of gneiss ; but 
they may be easily and accurately distinguished, as the 
mica-slate presents a surface perfectly continuous, and 
easily separable in the direction of the plates of the 
mica. The strata dip towards north-west. Mica slate 
also occurs in beds in various parts of this country. One 
of the most remarkable, most interesting, and most 
extensive, is that in the firth Kangerdluarsuk, in the 
61st degree of latitude, in the district of Juliana-Hope. 
It extends about five miles in length, and four miles in 
breadth ; its thickness varies from six to twelve feet ; 
and it contains, besides felspar, which is its principal 
constituent part, hornblende augite, actinolite, saliite, 
garnet, and that new mineral which has been analysed 
by Dr Thomson and Professor Eckeberg, called Soda~ Sodalite, « 
lite, It is of pale apple-green, leek-green, greenish Po¥ ™™* 
white, and pearl-grey colour, partly massive, partly 
crystallised. Another mineral, which has not yet been Another 
new mine- 
analysed, occurs also with the sodalite : it is of a 
blossom red and purple-red colour. On the shore, the tl. 
underlying gneiss is visible in several places. In the 
superincumbent mica slate, granite is found of Tt 
fine texture, partly disseminated, ly imbedd 
Calcareous spar and fluor occur in veins, both of which 
are sometimes coated with a thin crust of chalcedony, 
also -galena in small veins. Blue phosphate of iron in 
detached pieces is found on the shores.. The mica slate 
is generally decomposed and iron-shot, where the gra- 
phite is imbedded. In the firth of Arksat, a of 
very fine granular limestone is found in mica slate, 
which resembles the Carrara marble. The beds which 
occur in this rock on the mountain Kergiktorsoak have 
been already mentioned. Hornblende slate, forming 
-beds in mica slate, is found in many places. 
In the 64th degree of latitude, in a firth called Ame- 
raglik, in the south of the Danish colony Godthaab, 
(Goodhope,) a variety of mica slate is found, which pas- 
ses into tale slate, forming a very small layer in coarse 
granular granite. It is very remarkable, on account 
of the large groups of tourmaline which occur, imbed- 
ded or rather involved in talcose mica; and which are 
the largest crystals of this fine mineral that have been 
met with, At the end of the same firth, at Auaitsirk- 
sarbick, in the neighbourhood of the great continental 
glacier, the finest garnets are found. They are of a 
lamellar texture, and s s the oriental specimens in 
colour, lustre, and hardness. At the same place, dich- 
roite and hyperstene of a beautiful blue colour occur, 
along with precious garnet, in decomposed mica slate. 
1 the lower mountains from the 66th to the 71st de- 
gree of north latitude, and particularly all the mountains 
of the continent forming Disko-bay, with the greatest 
