468 



NA TURE 



[April IS, 1875 



by Mr. Tayler, M. Hagemann found, in 1868, Pachnolite 

 and Columbite, and a mineral he termed Arksutite. Near 

 the cryolite deposits also occur extensive veins of tin- 

 stone, covering an area 1,500 feet long by 80 feet broad, 

 running E. and W. and N.E. and S.W., with a width of 

 10 inches, the tin being i inch to i|, and the gangue 

 felspar or quartz, associated with galena, spathic carbonate 

 of iron, copper and iron pyrites, tantalite taking the place 

 of wolfram, usually associated with tin ores. 



Mid-Greenland.*— S\g\Wz.n& and a fern, probably Pe- 

 coptcris, were discovered by Dr. Pfaff in 1870-71, in 

 erratic blocks, on the coast of Disco ; they appear to 

 have been derived from rocks of Carboniferous age, but 

 as none such are now in Greenland, it is most probable, 

 as has been suggested, that they were brought by floating 

 ice from Melville Island. 



The Greenland coast and' islets are composed of gneiss 

 from 68° 30' to 71° N. lat., with the exception of the pro- 

 jecting peninsula of Noursoak, the north-eastern coast 

 of which, in Omenak Fjord, consists of Cretaceous rocks, 

 in which, however, no calcareous beds have as yet been 

 discovered, and from which the only fossils obtained have 

 been several species of plants, determined by Prof. Heer, 

 including Pecopteris arctica, Hr., P. horealis, Brong., and 

 eight other ferns, Zamites arcticiis, G'6^^.,Sequoia Reichcn- 

 bacliii, Gein., Piiitis Peterseni, and a Monocotyledon, 

 Fasciculites Gmnlaiidicus, Hr. 



The western coast of Noursoak consists of trap, as 

 does also that of the island of Disco, or Kekertassuak, as 

 far as Lievly or Godhavn, where there is a patch of 

 syenite. The shores of the Waigat Strait, both on the 

 Noursoak and Disco Island side, consist of Miocene 

 beds, which also extend in Disco along the east coast to 

 Godhavn, and are more or less associated with the trap 

 (basalt), which consists entirely, according to Norden- 

 skjold, of " consolidated beds of ashes and volcanic sand," 

 which by pressure have assumed a crystalline form. 



The Cretaceous strata of the north coast of Disco are 

 divided by Nordenskjold into two series, the lower, or 

 Kome strata, and the higher, or Atatte beds. The former 

 consist of a sedimentary coal-bearing formation filling up 

 old valleys and depressions in the undulating gneiss beds, 

 reaching a thickness of 1,000 feet, lying either horizon- 

 tally or dipping 20° towards the Noursoak peninsula. It 

 is probable that the plant remains brought home by 

 Giesecke and Rink were from this series, beds at the base 

 associated with the lowest thin coals being so full of 

 leaves as to have become a felted flexible mass, re- 

 sembling the vegetable parchment produced by the action 

 of sulphuric acid on lignite. Coal is collected by the 

 Greenlanders for their personal household use at Kome, 

 Sarfarfik, Pattorfik, and Avkrusak. Amongst the plants 

 from Kome are the beautiful Cycads Zamites arcticiis, 

 Glossosamites Holieneggeri, and several plants stated by 

 Heer to occur in the Urgonian strata of Wernsdorff. 



On the gneiss of Karsok River, at 840 feet above the 

 sea, occur sedimentary strata, basalt, and gravel, which 

 continue to 1,150 feet up the slope, where a gravel with 

 angular pieces of graphite occurs, near a sandstone with 

 coal ; the graphite is stated by Capt. Brockdorff, who 

 took five tons to Europe in 1 850, to form a horizontal bed 

 eight to ten inches thick, covered with clay, sand, and 

 sandstone. As the beds lie horizontal, and are 300 feet 

 above the Cretaceous rocks, the graphite must be of Cre- 

 taceous or still more recent age. Graphite also occurs at 

 Niakornet. An analysis of the Karsok graphite, by Dr. 

 Nordstrom, gave carbon 9568, hydrogen o'22, and ash 

 360 ; the latter gave 50 per cent, of sihca. 



Graphite also occurs further north, at Uppernivik, 

 near Sanderson's Hope, in fine-grained granite, consisting 

 of grey quartz and felspar of a waxy lustre, with garnets 

 one inch in diameter. 



* The Danish Government divides the coast into a North and South In- 

 spectorate, the former commencing at lat. 66°, and extending to 73° N. 

 beyond which they do not maintain a monopoly of the trade. 



The Atane strata occur on the southern side of the 

 Noursoak peninsula, between Atanekerdluk and Atane 

 (Nordenskjold) ; the thick co.al of Atane, that at 750 feet 

 above the sea at Kome, the Ritenbenk coal-mine at 

 Kudhset, the retinite beds of Hare Island, all prob.-ibly 

 belong to this portion of the series. Dicotyledonous 

 leaves occur, one being near to Magnolia alternans, 

 Heer, from Upper Cretaceous of Nebraska ; these do 

 not occur in the lower measures, and point to a " limit 

 plant fauna " occurring in the Arctic Cretaceous beds, cor- 

 responding to that found in the European Gault, in which 

 dicotyledonous plants first appear in Europe. 



Two analyses have been made of the coals from Disco, 

 but whether of Cretaceous or Miocene age I do not know ; 

 one by Prof. Fyfe,* of Aberdeen, the other by Mr. Keates, 

 of London f : — 



Sp. gravity 



Gaseous or vol. matter 



Moisture 



Sulphur 



' Fixed carbon 



Coke 



Ash 



Fyfe. 



1-384 

 50-60 



37-86 

 9-54 



lOO'OO lOO'OO 



The lignite contains a trace of bitumen, but the coke 

 is non-caking and useless. 



Miocene Rocks. — Sir Charles Giesecke, F.R.S., describ- 

 ing Disco Island in 1 82 i,t gives the following section of 

 Ounartosak Mountain, near Godhavn : — 



1. Basalt, columns with three to seven sides, more or 

 less magnetic. 



2. Reddish-brown ferruginous clay. 



3. Amorphous basalt, with geodes of mesotite, &c. 



4. Reddish-brown ferruginous clay. 



5. Reddish-brown wacke, with stilbite, mesotite, &c. 



6. Trap TulT. 



ka. Basalt Tuff, with geodes of crystallised apophyllite 

 with mesotite or earthy zeolite. 



7. Granite, with garnets. 



The trap (basalt) rocks lie tolerably flat, and range S.W. 

 to N.E., resting on gneiss. Sandstones occur at Aukpad- 

 lartok, and thence to AumarurtiksEct, where coal seams 

 occur, one of which is 9 feet in thickness, the section 

 being : — I. Sandstone with pyrites ; 2. Brown coal ; 3. 

 Schistose sandstone ; 4. Pitch coal ; 5. Argillaceous schist ; 

 6. Brown coal ; 7. Sandstone with plants. 



From the granite (gneiss ?) of the islands on the south 

 side of Disco, Giesecke records tinstone, magnetic pyrites, 

 epidote, and diallage, and states that the Disco mesotite 

 was found by Sir David Brewster to vary much from that 

 of Auvergne ; and he describes the occurrence of rounded 

 boulders of primitive rocks at the tops of the highest 

 mountains near the coast. Giesecke's collections were 

 destroyed in the bombardment of Copenhagen, whilst he 

 went to Greenland in the Danish service, and the collec- 

 tions he made in that country were captured by English 

 cruisers and sold by auction at Leith, where they were 

 purchased by Mr. Allan, who distributed the dupUcate 

 specimens of Greenland cryolite, sodalite, and allanite, 

 at that time of great rarity, over Britain. 



At Atanekerdluk, Nordenskjold describes Miocene 

 clays with vast numbers of plant impressions, at 1,000 

 to 1,200 feet above the sea, and newer than the Atane 

 beds, the base of the Miocene beneath the clay being soft 

 sandstone and sand ; the strike of the strata corresponds 

 to that of the strait, and the dip is 8—32° to E.N.E. It 

 formerly extended across the strait, and forms sandhills 

 2,000 to 3,000 feet in height along the eastern shore of 

 Disco, horizontal thin coal-bands and erect bitumenised 

 trees occasionally occurring. No valuable coals, however, 

 are worked in the Lower Miocene, which is separated from 



■ Appendix to Inglefield's 



t Phil. Trans, for 1869, p. 449. 

 X Trans. Royal Soc. Kdin., icia 



Search after Sir John Franklit 



