April I s> 1875] 



NATURE 



469 



the coal-bearing Middle Miocene of Ifsorisok and Assa- 

 kak by several thousand feet of basalts, but the flora is 

 similar to that of the lower fossiliferous beds. The coals 

 of the high fells of Skandsen and Assakak are also 

 believed to belong to this horizon. 



At the creek at Atanekerdluk the general strike of the 

 beds is E.N.E., clay, ironstone, or siderite (Atanekerdluk- 

 stour of Greenland Danes), with impressions of plants, 

 being of frequent occurrence. Trap (basalt) dykes tra- 

 verse the strata in regular lines running obliquely, and 

 often stand out like obelisks, one of which is 80 feet in 

 height. On the slopes occurred erratic blocks of grey 

 syenite, &c. 



It is probable that Greenland Miocene basalt extends, 

 as suggested by Nordenskjold, across the country north 

 of the sixty-ninth degree of latitude, as Scoresby found 

 impressions of plants in what he termed " trap " along the 

 whole co.ast of East Greenland examined by him. The 

 second German expedition has also brought back large 

 collections, and it is possible that these deposits may ex- 

 tend under the sea to Iceland, Jan Alayen, and Spitzbergen, 

 At Brannvinshamn, Skarffjall, Kudliset, magnificent ex- 

 amples of columnar basalt occur comparable to Stafla 

 and other European localities. At Godhavn, the lowest 

 bed resting on the gneiss, is a basaltic tuff, with several 

 species of zeolites, then columnar basalt, then tuff with 

 zeolites, alternating with that basalt. At Atanekerdluk, 

 near the shore, is a high mountain composed of crystalline 

 dolerite similar to the Spitzbergen hyperite, and along the 

 coast basaltic beds fifty to 100 feet thick, traversed by 

 basaltic dykes, may be traced for miles. 



On the east coast of Disco, sand and sandstone beds 

 form mountains 1,500 to 2.000 feet, capped by basalt ; in 

 Waigat Straits these sink, and the basalt reaches the shore, 

 but at a height of 1,000 feet, sand, clay, and coal occur. 



These Miocene coals and plant-beds spread over an 

 extensive area, for Sir John Richardson describes their 

 occurrence on the banks of the Mackenzie, associated 

 with gravels, sandstones, and potters clay with plant 

 rerriains, which he figured ; while to the east, in Spitz- 

 bergen, a large number of species are in common, and 

 many species also occur on the coast of the Baltic, in Swit- 

 zerland, France, Italy, and Greece, four Greenland species 

 including Sequoia Con/tsicr, so common at Bovey Tracey 

 in Devonshire. Out of 321 species of Miocene Arctic 

 plants now known, 167 were found in Greenland.* 



East Greenland. — The second German expedition 

 is stated to have discovered! coals of Liassic age on 

 this coast, and a large number of Miocene plants, some 

 of which had previously been found by Scoresby in 1822. 



Both the Cretaceous and Miocene rocks of Greenland 

 appear to have been deposited in fresh water, around 

 which grew leafy trees, including nine species ot oak, of 

 which two were evergreen, like the Italian oak ; two 

 beeches, two planes, a walnut, hazel, sumach, buckthorn, 

 holly, and Guelder rose, proving the climate to have 

 been a temperate and not a tropical one. 



Prof. H. E. Nordenskjo'J 1 found the Greenland me- 

 teorites to be spread over aa area of 200 square miles at 

 the south-western comer of Disco Island, as Ovifak or 

 Blue Hill, both in the region of greenstone basalt, and in 

 that occupied by granite-gneiss ; the fall he believes to 

 have taken place in Miocene times, and he describes 

 Widmannstastten's figures as best developed in the speci- 

 mens where nickeliferous wrought is mixed with nickeli- 

 ferous cast iron. 



The basalt he found to be consolidated basaltic ashes, 

 and to contain fragments of the meteorites which have 

 been forced or fallen into cracks before the tuff was con- 

 solidated. The largest block noticed probably weighed 



^ The position of the plant-bearing localities are marked In Nordenskj old's 

 Chart, founded on Rinks, Geol. Mag., vol. ix , plate vii , 1872. 



t "Zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt," No. viii., issued by the Bremen 

 Committee. 



I Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc, vol. .^cxviii. 1872 ; Geol. Mag., vol. ix. p, 461, &c. 



21,000 kilogrammes, that now in the British Museum 

 weighing about eighty-severi. 



In the British Museum is an Esquim.iux knife, with a 

 bone handle, the blade composed of small pieces of 

 meteoric iron, presented by Sir Edward Sabine, who 

 described it in 18 19 (Quar. Jour, of Science, vol. vii. p. 79), 

 and stated that the iron was procured by the Greenlanders 

 from a hard dark rock in a hill in 76° 10' lat., and 64^ 75' 

 long. ; they called the place Sowilie, from soiuie, iron. 

 Similar implements have been more recently described by 

 Steenstrup, at the Anthropological Congress at Brussels, 

 in 1872, and figured in Ma/aiaiix pour P hist aire primi- 

 tive de I'Homme, 2 serie, t. iv. 1873. In the third voyage 

 of Capt. Cook, it is stated that the inhabitants of Norton 

 Sound, Behring's Straits, call the iron they obtain from 

 the Russians sliawie. 



M. Daubre'e * describes three distinct types of the so- 

 called meteorites from the basalt of Ovifak, discovered 

 by Prof. Nordenskjold : (i),a black metallic mass, which, 

 poUshed, shows a network of white lamella; (like schrei- 

 Ijerite), and irregularly scattered grains (troilite) ; (2), a 

 light grey metallic mass resembhng ordinary iron ; and 

 (3), a dark green lithoid mass of silicates, with globules 

 and grains of iron, the silica reaching in one instance 

 1 1 '9 per cent, of the total weight. 



Third Type. 



61 -99 • 

 8-u 



3-6 



70-1 



47 



Third Type. 

 0-047 

 0-146 



0-II4 



I '354 0-37S 0-307 



But though differing from all other known meteorites, 

 he considers the presence of nickeliferous iron and schrei- 

 berite to prove their meteoric origin in spite of the com- 

 bination of the iron with oxygen, and the abundance of 

 carbon and the large proportion of soluble salts, consider- 

 ing that the preservation of the latter may be due to the 

 feeble tension of the vapour of the northern regions. 



Dr. Walter Flight, in his recent article on the History 

 of Meteorites, f quotes Nauckhoff, who analysed ten rocks 

 from Ovifak, and found the basalt to be a compact dark 

 greyish green colour, of felspar (anorthite), penetrating 

 magnetite, augite, and iron, the mass containing 49-18 

 per cent, of silicic acid. Tschermak describes the augite 

 as of a light green tint, and as filling in spaces between 

 other material, the felspar crystals as transparent, with 

 cavities often filled with some transparent substance, and 

 compares the Ovifak rocks to the meteorites of Juvinas, 

 Petersburg, and Stannern ; and Dr. Flight compares them 

 to old augite and anorthite lavas of Java, Iceland, and 

 the Eifel. 



The coast of North-west Greenland, Cape York, VVol- 

 stenholme Sound, to Cape Hatherton, is described by Dr. 

 Sutherland as composed of trap. From Cape Parry to 

 Bardin Bay the rocks dip S.W., further north-east to the 

 S.W. at 30°. At Whale Sound horizontal beds of sandstone 

 occur, but on the opposite side of Smith's Sound the cliffs 

 are high, rugged, and inaccessible. Between Cape George 

 Russel and Dallas Bay, Dr. Kane % describes the red 

 sandstones as capped by greenstones, weathering into 

 columns, one of which, 480 feet in height, he called Tenny- 

 son's Monument, overlooking Sunny Gorge in 79°. 



Charles E. de Range 

 {To be continued.) 



' Comptes Rendus de I'Acad. des Sc, t. Ixxiv., Ixxv. 

 t Geol. Mag., vol. il Dec. 2,p. 154. (London, 1875.) 

 t Arctic Expedition in 1853-55, by E. K. Kane, M.D., U.S.N. (Phila 

 delphia, 1856.) 



