2 REPORT 1869. 



mation as possible from the Danes and from the natives respecting the loca- 

 lities we -were about to visit. From the information so obtained, it was 

 evident that the fossil stores on the hill of Atanekerdliik had akeady been 

 well ransacked, and that we could not hope to meet with any great novelties 

 in that direction. I obtained, however, some amber, through the natives, 

 from a locality on Disco Island, which had not been examined, and heard of 

 two other places where fossil wood had been discovered. These places, 

 Ujarasuksumitok and Kudliset, are described at length further on. I also 

 secured by purchase several specimens from Atanekerdluk, and a few fossil 

 shells from Paitorfik in the district of Umenak *. 



We were ready to start by the middle of August, but the natives on whom 

 we had relied for a crew preferred to go south, to a dance at Claushavn ; and 

 it was owing to the kindness of the trader at Jakobshavn, who gave us a 

 passage in a blubber-boat returning to Eitenbenk, that we were at length 

 enabled to start on our journey. We got to Eitenbenk at 1.30 a.m. on the 

 20th of August, and in spite of the inconvenient hour at which we arrived, 

 were received with the greatest warmth and hospitality by Mr. Anderson. 

 On the evening of the same day we again started ; this time with a strong 

 force, by the advice of Mr. Anderson, the trader. There were now with me 

 two boats, one hired at Eitenbenk, eleven native men and women, and Messrs. 

 Brown and Tegner (naturalist and interpreter). I tried hard to engage the 

 natives to go as far as Umenak, but failed to get them to promise to go 

 further than Atanekerdluk. 



We started at 10.30 p.m., and our coiu'se soon took us into the midst of 

 the Tossukatek ice-stream, a great assemblage of icebergs largo and small, 

 which were given off from a glacier whose summit we could jiist see on the 

 horizon. This ice-stream was remarkable for the enormoiis number of ice- 

 bergs it contained, and was also notable for the small amount of moraine 

 matter upon them. Eeally large blocks of rock we did not see, and those of 

 a yard in diameter were rare ; but there was abundance of small stones, of 

 grit, and of sand upon the bergs. There is no doubt that beneath the course 

 of the Tossukatek ice-stream, as below all others t, there are conglomerate 

 strata in course of formation, which cannot now be seen, but which may 

 possibly be presented to the view of future travellers. 



Shortly after passing through this ice-stream we arrived at the small 

 settlement of Sakkak J. This place stands by the water's edge at the entrance 

 of a great valley running into the heart of the Noursoak peninsula. A con- 

 siderable river that flows down this valley falls into the sea a little to the 

 north of the settlement, and appears to form the boundary line of the granite 

 districts which we were just quitting, and the trap formation upon which we 

 were just entei'ing. 



A solitary Danish man lives at this place, and has done so for twenty- 



* Astarte sulcata, Costa. 



crcbricostata, Forbes, 



elliptica, Brown. 



f On the voyage up Davis Straits we wero becalmed off Eifkol, a noted landmark, and 

 ancliored on some banks in eigliteen fathoms. These banks have certainly been greatly in- 

 creased, if not originated, by the deposition of matter from the icebergs of tlie Jakobshavn 

 ice-stream. At the time vre were anchored a large number of small bergs were aground 

 upon them, breaking up and reTolving all around. We took the opportiuiity to put down 

 the dredge, and although we only worked irom the ship side, and consequently over a very 

 limited amount of bottom, we brought up in two or three hauls fragments of granite, 

 gneiss (some vnth garnets), syenite, quartz, hornblende, greenstone, and mica-slate. The 

 sounding-lead showed a fine sand bottom, and the anchor flukes brought fetid mud. 



J The word Sakkak means, according to Giesecke, " sunside," i. e. southerly aspect. 



Mya truncata, Fabr. 

 Cardium ? 



