176 Revieius — The Arctic Manual 



Cretaceous beds containing numerous plant fossils (of whicli a copious 

 list by Prof. Oswald Heer is furnished), and named the '' Kome For- 

 mation," are found along the northern face of the Noursoak Peninsula 

 at six different places. 2. That Upper Cretaceous beds (with, as 

 Prof. Heer suggests, possibly Eocene plants in the top portion) 

 exist on the south coast of the same land, and are named the " Atane 

 Formation." 3. That surmounting the latter (further up the hill-side 

 at Atanekerdluk) are Miocene beds. 



Interspersed with, and superimposed on these in some places, are 

 extensive beds of trap-rock, which form a singular and distinctive 

 feature of the geology of the locality examined. " Sand and clay 

 beds " are found lying between basaltic rocks at Sinnifik ; at other 

 places red basaltic clay lies between the strata ; and Prof. Norden- 

 skiold, therefore, advances the opinion — that the eruptions which 

 gave rise to these vast beds of basalt took place after the commence- 

 ment of the Cretaceous, and ceased before the end of the Tertiary 

 period. 



The Cretaceous beds lying along the north coast of Noursoak 

 (Kome, etc.), have among them (at Karsok) a remarkable layer of 

 graphite, which, though exhibiting no organic remains, is probably, 

 like the coal there, a member of the Upper series. The coal and the 

 plant-bearing shales are interstratified with red and white sand- 

 stones, rarely fossiliferous ; the fossils, which are preserved best 

 in the lower strata, comprise numerous Ferns [Gleichenice), a fine 

 Cjca.d (Zamites arctica), and numerous Conifers. 



The Atane formation is rich in coal-beds, and has been assigned to 

 the Upper Cretaceous (Heer), because of the frequent occurrence of 

 Ferns, a Cycad (Cycadites Dichsoni), and a Sequoia ; while the flora 

 differs materially from that of Kome in the presence " of pretty nu- 

 merous dicotyledonous plants, which are, moreover, quite unlike 

 the Greenland Miocene plants." The upper strata at Atanekerdluk 

 exhibit, at 1200 feet above the sea-level, a set of sandstones, shales, and 

 hard ferruginous clays, rich in Miocene fossils ; and the existence of 

 tree-stools, with the roots branching out into the underlying clay-bed, 

 affords evidence that the plants grew in the locality in which they 

 are now found. The Miocene formation evidently extended over 

 the Waigat Strait to the Island of Disco, at the south-east angle of 

 which it attains its greatest thickness. But though thin seams of 

 clay and coal are found here and there, coal-beds worth working are 

 not likely to be discovered in this series. Dr. Brown is of opinion 

 that no calcareous beds having yet been found in these Miocene 

 strata, they are all of fresh- water origin. 



The evidence of Cretaceous beds in the Island of Disco is not yet 

 clear, though a specimen of Caulopteris punctata (Cretaceous according 

 to Mr. Carruthers, F.E.S., and Prof. Heer) would seem to indicate 

 that here, as elsewhere, they underlie the trap-rocks and Miocene 

 strata. Over all lie the vast layers of trap-rock which give a peculiar 

 character to the general appearance of Disco and the Waigat Strait. 

 They appear to extend right across the country north of 69^^ north 

 latitude, and in some cases are '' not masses of lava, but consolidated 



