356 Prof. Nordenskiuld — Expedition to Greenland. 



Magnesia 3-00 



Potassa ... 2-02 



Soda 4-01 



Phosphoric acid 0-11 



Chlorine 0-06 



"Water, organic substance (100° to red heat) 2- 86 



Hygroscopic water (15^ to 100") 0-34 



100'12 

 After long digestion with sulpliuric acid only 7*73, and with 

 muriatic acid 16-4:6, per cent, was dissolved. The remainder was 

 entirely white, after heating to redness. The analysis gives the 

 atomic relation — 



or the formula — 



2 il S»2 + A^ SP + H 

 Specific gravity = 2-63 (21^^). Hardness inconsiderable, crystalli- 

 zation probably monoclinic. 



The substance is not a clay, but a sandy trachytic mineral, of 

 a composition (especially as regards soda) which indicates that it 

 does not originate in the granite-region of Greenland. Its origin 

 appears therefore to me very enigmatical. Does it come from the 

 basalt- region ? or from the supposed volcanic tracts in the interior 

 of Greenland ? or is it of meteoric origin ? The octahedrally crys- 

 tallized magnetic particles do not contain any traces of nickel. As 

 the principal ingredient corresponds to a determinate chemical 

 formula, it would perhaps be desirable to enter it under a separate 

 class in the register of science ; and for that purpose I propose for 

 this substance the name Kryokonite (from Kpva and K6vi<i). 



When I persuaded our Botanist, Mr. Berggren, to accompany me 

 in the journey over the ice, we joked with him on the singularity of 

 a botanist making an excursion into a tract, perhaps the only one in the 

 world that was a perfect desert as regards botany. This expectation 

 was, however, not confirmed. Dr. Berggren's quick eye soon dis- 

 covered, partly on the surface of the ice, partly in the above- 

 mentioned powder, a brown polycellular alga, which, little as it is, 

 together with the powder and certain other microscopic organisms 

 by which it is accompanied, is the most dangerous enemy to the mass 

 of ice, so many thousand feet in height and hundred miles in extent. 

 The dark mass absorbs u far greater amount of the sun's rays of 

 heat than the white ice, and thus produces over its whole surface 

 deep holes which greatly promote the process of melting. The 

 same plant has no doubt played the same part in our country, 

 and we have to thank it, perhaps, that the deserts of ice which 

 formerly covered the whole of northern Europe and America have 

 now given place to shady woods and undulating corn-fields. Of 

 course, a great deal of the grey powder is carried down in the rivers, 

 and the blue ice at the bottom of them is not unfrequently concealed 

 by a dark dust. How rich this mass is in organic matter is proved by 

 the circumstance, amongst others, that the quantity of organic matter 

 in it was sufficient to bring a large collection of the grey powder, 



