NOTES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL. , 319 
about lat. 65° N., off the district of Godtshaab. When the dredge 
was hauled on board it was half full of gravel and pebbles, no doubt 
left on the bank by the grounding and decaying icebergs: the 
majority of the pebbles brought up were gneiss and granite, more 
sparingly pieces of basalt. The swabs attached to the dredge were 
full of Asteroids and Ophiurians—Asteracanthion polaris, Solaster 
endeca, Ophioglypha robusta, O. Stuwilzii, and Ophiopholis bellis 
being represented in the haul. Inside of the net were six large 
Holothurians, Cucumaria frondosa, and a few Mollusca, chiefly 
Buccinium, Natica, Astarte, and Saxicava. 
As a rule, we passed along the Greenland coast at too great 
a distance to obtain any accurate idea of its formation. All that 
we could observe was the peaked and ragged outline of the 
mountainous islands that fringe the mainland. At times, looking 
up some fiord, we caught a glimpse of the great mer-de-glace of 
the interior. On one or two occasions, as we neared the coast, 
under sail, we obtained better opportunities of gratifying our 
curiosity in regard to this most interesting land.* Early on the 
4th July, the date on which the Arctic Circle was crossed, we ran 
in shore not far from Sukkertoppen. The superb colouring of an 
Arctic summer night was on this occasion displayed to its fullest 
extent. When the sun reached its lowest declination, the heavens 
were tinted gold and amber, and for a couple of hours we witnessed 
a glorious sunset passing into a still more brilliant sunrise. The 
mountains, previously shrouded in mist and gloom, completely 
changed their appearance; their snowy summits were suffused 
with a warm orange glow, deep purple shades climbed up the 
slopes, clothing each ravine and precipice with rich shades of 
colour, and hanging like a warm-tinted curtain across the valleys 
leading into the interior; beyond all, almost hidden in a veil of 
neutral tint, the line of the “inland ice” cut the horizon. 
On this occasion a small whale, which I believe to have been 
the Common Beaked Whale, Hyperoodon rostratus, was blowing 
near the ship. Each emission of breath was accompanied by a 
stentorian grunt, which closely resembled that of the elephant. 
This small whale was accompanied by a flock of thirty or forty 
* It being quite beyond the compass of these notes to attempt to do more than 
record personal experiences, the reader, if inclined to obtain an insight into the 
physical structure of Danish Greenland, must consult the works of the standard 
authorities on the subject, namely, those of Dr. Rink and Dr. Robert Brown. 
