Trof. NordensMold — Expedition to Greenland. 419 



Subsequently (1838) the coal-beds of North Greenland were, by 

 order of the Danish Government, examined by J. C. Schythe, though, 

 as it appears, chiefly for technical purposes. A more important 

 event for geological science vs^as Dr. Eink's four years' residence 

 (1848-1851) in North Greenland, during which time he visited 

 many parts of the Basalt region, whence rich collections were taken 

 home, among which may be mentioned fossil trunks of trees from 

 several places, as also the fossils from Kome described in Heer's Flora 

 Fossilis Arctica. Some years later a Dane, Jens Nielsen, residing 

 at Atanekerdluk, discovered magnificent Miocene fossils there, a 

 large number of which were collected, when Captain Inglefield, in 

 company with Captain Colomb, and Obrik, the Inspector of North 

 Greenland, visited the place in July, 1854. 



These strong proofs of a climate formerly warm, up in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Pole, aroused wonder and astonishment in all who 

 saw them. More collections were made, partly by Inspector Obrik.' 

 partly by other officials of the Danish Trade. Also Prof. Torell, Dr. 

 Walker, Dr. Lyall, and others brought home not inconsiderable col- 

 lections from their travels in Greenland. 



The importance of this discovery to the history of our globe was, 

 however, first taught by means of Heer's Flora Fossilis Arctica, in 

 which these fossils are described, together with similar fossils 

 collected during the English Franklin Expeditions from the most 

 northerly archipelago of America, by Prof. Steenstrup from Iceland, 

 and by the Swedish Polar Expeditions from Spitzbergen. The 

 British Association had already (1867), at the instance of Mr. Eobert 

 H. Scott, F.E.S., sent out an expedition to make new researches in this 

 geologically interesting quarter. These were entrusted to Messrs. 

 Whymper and Brown ; ^ but in consequence of a combination of un- 

 favourable circumstances, the new researches were confined to the 

 already well-examined locality of Atanekerdluk and the opposite 

 shore of the Waigat. The new collections thus indeed completed 

 the knowledge we already possessed of the Flora of the Miocene 

 Period in the extreme north, but they opened no new views of the 

 periods which immediately preceded and followed it. 



As in 1858, and especially in the Spitzbergen expedition of 1868, 

 I had had the opportunity of contributing in some measure to the 

 climatic history of the extreme north, this question interested me in 



^ Mr. Obrik's collections were given partly to the University Musenna at Copen- 

 hagen, partly to Capt. M't'lintock, wlio, on his return in 1859, passed Disko, and, on 

 returning home, presented them to the Koyal Society in Dublin, the same institution 

 to which Capt. Colomb hud presented his collections. Capr. Inglefield's collections 

 were given partly to the Geological Survey in London ; Dr. Walker's and Dr. Lyall's 

 (from the eastern side of Disko, near the surface of the sea) to the Botanical Museum 

 at Kew ; Prof. Torell's to the National Museum at Stockholm ; Mr. Whymper's 

 and Mr. Brown's to the British Museum. The cnllections from Spitzbergen and of the 

 expedition of 1870 will be dividt'd between the Museums of Stockholm and Gotten- 

 burg. 



' On this journe)', see Osw. Heer, '• Contributi'in- to the Fossil Flira of North 

 Greenland, being a Description of the Plants Collected by Mr, Edward Whymper 

 during the Summer of 1867." — I'hil. Transactions ot Uoy. Soc, vol. 1-J9, part ii., 

 p.. 445. 1870, 



