73 Earliest Record of the Occurrence 



in tliis respect the Lower Cretaceous Flora resembles the Carbon- 

 iferous Flora. The comparative rarity of Gleichenias and Cycads, 

 and the disappearance of Marattiacece, might point to a change of 

 climate for the Upper Cretaceous ; but the presence of Ficus renders 

 this doubtful, so that we cannot decide whether the change of 

 climate occurred during the Cretaceous or the Tertiary period in 

 Greenland ; at all events, the Flora of the former epoch has a more 

 southern character than that of the latter. 



Besides these fossils, Nordenskiold has brought over a large series 

 of Miocene plants from various localities. The most interesting of 

 these are from a deposit, which is separated by beds of basalt, some 

 2000 feet thick, from the lower Miocene plant strata, and which, 

 though still Miocene, are much later in age. 



The German expedition has brought from the east coast of 

 Greenland some vegetable fossils, many of which are, however, 

 only undistinguishable carbonaceous traces. Lieutenant Payen, 

 however, brought some specimens from Sabine Island which could 

 be identified. They belong to Taxodium dtstichum and Popidus 

 arctica, with a fragment which probably belongs to Diospyros 

 hrachysepala. These trees have been discovered in "West Green- 

 land, and the two first named in Spitzbergen also, so that they 

 probably flourished over the entire district from the west coast to 

 Spitzbergen. In his paper on Spitzbergen, Professor Heer had 

 remarked that we might expect to find the plants which were com- 

 mon to the west coast of Greenland and to Spitzbergen, on the east 

 coast of Greenland also. This anticipation has now been confirmed 

 by the discovery of these two species, and it may fairly be expected 

 that the fossiliferous Sandstones and Marls of Germania Mountain in 

 Sabine Island contain many of the missing forms. 



V. — Earliest Kecokb of the Occurrence of Meteoric Iron 

 IN Greenland. 



IN the Geological Magazine for December, 1871 (Vol. VIII., p. 

 570), we reported^ the return of the Swedish scientific expedi- 

 tion from the coast of Greenland, bringing home a number of masses 

 of meteoric iron, found there upon the surface of the ground, the 

 largest of which was said to weigh 25 tons. In the Eeport of the 

 meeting of the Geological Society, Dec. 20th, 1871, contained in our 

 present number (see page 88), we give some further particulars re- 

 lative to this interesting discovery, which has elicited a letter from 

 the Kev. 0. Fisher (see Geological Magazine for Jan., 1872, p. 47), 

 and a lively discussion at the Geological Society. We are indebted 

 to E. H. Scott, Esq., F.E.S., for obligingly calling our attention to 

 the account of the original discovery, more than fifty years ago, by 



1 Under Proceedings of the Geological Society of London for Nov. 8tli, 1871. 



