Prof. Nordenshi'dld-^ExpedUion to Greenland. 421 



winds, so that it Was not till the 2nd of November that I could land 

 at Elsinore. 



During the whole period of our boat excursions in Greenland we 

 had, with the exception of one rainy night, a constantly clear sky 

 and a favourable sailing breeze : circumstances which greatly 

 facilitated our movements, and rendered it possible in so short a 

 time to investigate at least the principal geological features of that 

 remarkable tract, and to collect extensive series of plant-fossils from 

 above twenty separate localities and belonging to five widely-aeparated 

 geological horizons. 



Like previous similar collections from the Arctic regions, these 

 have been transmitted for examination to Prof. Osw. Heer, of 

 Zurich, and I venture to hope that, when duly interpreted, they will 

 give us an idea of the changes of climate these regions have under- 

 gone since the epoch when serious variations of climate first took 

 place upon the globe. I will only offer a few short remarks on the 

 geognosy of these interesting beds. 



Greenland basalt or, as it is also called, trap-formation, probably 

 extends completely across the country north of the 69th degree of 

 latitude ; at least Scoresby found, in his remarkable visit to the 

 eastern coast of Greenland, trap with the impression of plants^ at 

 many places along the extent of coast visited by him- It is possible 

 that the same formation may continue under the sea to Iceland, and 

 thence, partly in a more northerly direction over Jan Mayen to 

 Spitzbergen, partly in a southern direction from Jan Mayen, over 

 the Faroe Islands, to the Hebrides and Ireland.^ The same eruptive 

 formation extends also westward over a vast part of Franklin's 

 Archipelago, perhaps even to the volcanic tracts at Behrings Sound. 

 These basalt beds probably all arise from a volcanic chain, active 

 during the Tertiary Period, which perhaps indicates the limits of the 

 ajucient polar continent, in the same manner as is now the case with 

 the eastern coast of Asia and the western of America, thus confirm- 

 ing the division of land and water in the Tertiary Period, which 

 lapon totally different grounds has been supposed to have existed. 



This formation appears most developed in North Greenland on the 

 large Island of Disko, as also on the peninsulas of Noursoak and 

 Sortenhook, where it occupies an area of above 7000 square miles 

 with a vertical section of 3000 to 6000 feet. 



Even here these eruptive rocks are divided into beds which, 

 between Godhavn and Fortune Bay, rest immediately upon the 

 gneiss formation ; on the strand of Omenakfjord, between Ekkorfat 

 and Kome, upon sand and cla»y beds belonging to the Cretaceous' 

 age. To the east of Godhavn, again, at Puilasok and Sinnifik, we 

 meet with sand and clay beds lying between, not under, the basalt 



^ Scoresby's collections from these parts seem to have been lost. On the other 

 hand the last German expedition to East Greenland brought back collections of plant 

 impressions which have also been placed for investigation in the hands of Prof. Osw. 

 Heer. 



"^ The agreement between the basalt formations of Greenland and the British 

 Islands, both as regards the character of the rocks and the age of the beds, seems to 

 be perfect. 



