NOTES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL. 375 
Where we reached the shore, the horizontal bedded basalt cliffs 
rose frowning overhead to a height of a thousand feet; they are much 
serrated on their upper edge by the action of water and weather, 
and though, when viewed from a distance, the cliffs appear to be 
mural, on a closer acquaintance it is seen that they are fretted into 
most fantastic shapes; pillars, needles, and blocks of trap stand 
out in relief against the cliffs. A talus with a very steep slope 
extends from the beach to a height of about three hundred feet. 
This talus is removed between low- and high-water marks by the 
sea; but on this cleared space many large ice-transported erratics 
were strewn. ‘The two Greenlanders who accompanied us, one of 
whom had informed Mr. Krarup Smith that in the preceding year 
he had observed an “iron-stone” similar 11 appearance to those 
taken away by the Swedes, led me to the spot: the waves were 
breaking somewhat; but I satisfied myself that no iron-masses 
were lying amongst the boulders for some yards to seaward.* 
Considerable interest has been excited both in England and the 
Continent as to the origin of these iron-masses of Uivfak, whether 
they be meteoric or telluric. Without presuming to hazard any 
decided opinion on the subject, it may be well to mention that, 
even with an ordinary lens pieces of basalt, apparently similar to 
the rock of Uivfak, are to be detected in the body of these lumps 
of iron: this militates against the argument of their meteoric 
origin. The re-occurrence of pieces of iron-stone at the same 
place makes it more than probable that the matrix of the iron is in 
the cliffs overhead. 
On our return journey to Godhavn we landed at Laxebught, where 
there is a considerable indentation on the coast. Between the cliffs 
and the bay stretches an extent of flat land, which reaches to the 
head of the bay. The present sea-level is some twenty feet below 
this border of old sea-shore. A considerable stream, formed by the 
melting of the snow on the uplands, empties into Laxebught, near 
its western extremity ; rounded boulders of gneiss are abundant in 
the bed of the stream. As boulders of gneiss are likewise scattered 
over the flat land surrounding the bay, and were probably floated 
there on ice when the land lay below the present sea-level, | walked 
up to the spot where the torrent debouches from the cliffs, and con- 
* In the following year, 1876, Mr. Krarup Smith obtained a large mass of native 
iron from this same spot, and several smaller pieces: they were picked up at the 
water's edge. 
