94 REPORT 1871. 



Geological Notes on the Noursoak Peninsula and Disco Island in North 

 Greenland. Bij Robekt Beoatx, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.G.S., Sfc. 



The geology of Greenland has been partially investigated, so fai- as the west coast 

 is concerned, by Giesecke, Pingel, Rink, and to some extent by Inglefield, Suther- 

 land, Kane, Hayes, and the late Mr. Olrik, so many years Inspector of North Green- 

 land and Director of the Kgl. Gronlandske Handel in Copenhagen. More recently 

 the author and his companions made sections and collected fossils from the vicinity 

 of the localities named ; and this paper was an account of the geological results of 

 this voyage, made in 1867. Since then several Swedish naturalists have visited 

 the country, and the German Expedition to East Greenland has added to our know- 

 ledge of the geology and tertiary flora of East Greenland. The formations found 

 in Greenland are :— 



(1) Primitive rocls, chiefly syenite, gi'anitic, and various gneissose rocks, very 

 widely distributed, reaching in some places to a height of 4000 feet or more. Eti 

 this formation are found the chief economic minerals of Greenland, kryolite, soap- 

 stone, &c. 



(2) " The Ped Sandstone of Igalliko Ijord,''^ probably Devonian^ but only a patch, 

 now being rapidly destroyed by the sea. 



(3) Mesozoic rucls : only a patch in the vicinity of Omenak, most probably 

 cretaceous. 



(4) Miocene : confined entirely to the vicinity of the Waigatz Strait and part 

 of Omenak Fjord, on the west coast, though most probably it once extended right 

 over Greenland in that line, thougli now either desti-oyed or overlain by the great 

 interior ice. It makes its appearance on the east coast, and is also found in 

 Spitzbergen. 



The next portion of Dr. Brown's paper was occupied in describing in detail the 

 Miocene beds and sections seen at various places; the whole concluding with a 

 criticism of the conclusions of Professor Heer, of Zurich, who had described the 

 plants discovered by Dr. Brown and others, and in giving what he considered was 

 a just view of the results which the palceontologist might logically deduce from the 

 facts already observed. After giving some account of Greenland "coal, its structure, 

 chemical composition, and economic Aalue, lie furnished a list of the animal- and 

 plant-remains already found in the INIiocene and Cretaceous beds in Greenland, and 

 indicated what points remain still to be investigated. Chief among these he in- 

 stanced the Mesozoic deposits already mentioned. As the Association had already 

 voted a sum of money for tliis purpose, ho thought that if it was judiciously ex- 

 pended through means of some of the well-educated and intelligent Danish officers 

 resident in Greenland, who were accustomed to such work, good results might be 

 accomplished. 



Note on certain Fossils from the Durinc Limestone, N. W. Sutherland. 

 B]) Dr. Bryce, F.R.S.E. 



On the Vegetable Contents of Masses of Limestone' Occurring in Trappean 

 liochs in Fifeshire, and the conditions under which they are preserved. By 

 W. Careuthers, F.R.S. 



The shore to the east of Kingswood End is strewn with large fragments of a 

 limestone which Mr. G. Grieve, of Burntisland, detected to be filled with vege- 

 table remains. This limestone was traced by Mr. Grieve to the clifts above, where 

 he found it enclosed in the centre of tlie trappean tuff. Having received from 

 him several specimens, the author recently spent some time, in companv with Prof. 

 Morris, in investigating this important discovery of Mr. Grieve, under his direction. 

 The specimens occur in angular masses in the volcanic ash, and are fragments of 

 beds existing before the formation of the bed of ash. At Elie fragments of 

 coniferous wood abound in a similar bed, and there, as at Kingswood End, the ash 

 contains numerous fragments of shale, limestone, sandstone, &c. The author 

 beheved that the plant-remains had been enclosed in the fonn of peat, from a 



