418 Prof. NordensMold — Exj^ediiion to Greenland. 



old houses.' Some skulls were also taken, the Greenlanders not ap- 

 pearing to object to this; and as it is a matter of the greatest 

 scientific interest to obtain perfectly authentic skulls of the original 

 inhabitants of Greenland before any mixture of race had taken 

 j)Iace. 



On the 31st of July we returned to Leerbugten, where we were 

 obliged to divide our little expedition into two parties. It was of 

 interest to the geologists to visit as many places along the coast as 

 possible, even if it were only for a few hours, whereas the botanist 

 and the zoologist for their researches, and especially for the preser- 

 vation of their collections, were obliged to remain at least some days 

 at each place. Dr. Berggren and Dr. Oberg therefore now went 

 together, to collect from the bottom and from the mountainous shores 

 of Disko Bay materials for the fauna and flora of the place. Dr. 

 Kordstrom and I, on the other hand, hastened to the Basalt region, to 

 seek for new sources of the climatological history of the extreme 

 north in the coal, sand, and clay-beds to be met with there. The 

 harvest we gathered was rich beyond our expectations. 



In the first volume of his work on Greenland, Krantz has in- 

 troduced some notices of the mineralogy of the country, whence we 

 find that the coal-beds of Disko were then (1765) already known. 

 A statement of the Greenlanders is moreover adduced, that in certain 

 distant parts all sorts of fishes were to be found turned into stone. 

 Some years later the surgeon Brasen, who in 1767 made a voyage 

 to these parts for his health, collected a quantity of minerals, of 

 which a catalogue is given in the third volume of Krantz's work. 

 This catalogue contains twenty-five items, including different varieties 

 of quartz, granite, graphite, pot-stone (steatite), pumice-stone (of 

 which it is justly remarked, that it has been brought hither by the 

 currents from Iceland), and so forth. In the beginning of the next 

 century (1806-1813) C. Giesecke — who was first an actor, afterwards 

 a mineralogist with the 'title of " bergsraad," and lastly professor in 

 Dublin — and Knight made extensive mineralogical excursions on the 

 coasts of Greenland. Giesecke himself has published but little of 

 his observations,^ though carefully kept journals of his travels are 

 preserved in manuscript at Copenhagen. Numerous and important 

 new discoveries prove that his researches were carried out in a true 

 scientific spirit, and with a completeness and accuracy the like of 

 which but few of the old civilized lands of Europe could at that 

 time produce. Even North Greenland was visited by Giesecke. 

 Here he discovered, among other things, plant-fossils at Kome ^ and 

 at the east coast of Disko,* and furnished several instructive sections. 



1 Stone implements of various kinds were collected and purchased by us at several 

 other places, so thiit the collection we brought home consisted of above 1000 

 specimei:s. Dr. Oberg made the richest harvest at Kikertak. 



2 In Brewster s Edinburgh Encychipajdia, vol. x., pp. 481-502, under the word 

 " Greenl.md," is an article written by Giesecke, containing, among other things, some 

 short notices of the mineralogy of that country. There is also a work by him on 

 Cryolite in Kdinbargh Philo. Journal, vi., 1822. 



3 Giesecke's Journal. Heer's Flora Fossilis Arctica, p. 7. 



* The above-mentioned article in Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, p. 493. 



