454 Prof. NordenslxidJd — Expedition to Greenland. 



III. — The Miocene formation. 



During the Miocene period masses of basalt, sand, and clay, to a 

 depth of many thousand feet, have been piled together in the district 

 of Greenland we are now considering, and by far the greater part of 

 the rocks on Disko Island and Noursoak peninsula belong therefore 

 to that epoch. The Gi'eenland Miocene strata (of sedimentary and 

 eruptive origin) may be arranged under three divisions, namely : 



(a) Lowest Sand or loose sandstone, with slate, coal-bands of 

 slight thickness, and ferruginous clay-beds, very rich in impressions 

 of plants. 



(6) Basalt, Tuff, and Lava beds of several thousand feet in 

 thickness, visually as regularly stratij&ed as sand-beds, often alternat- 

 ing with basalt beds. In about the middle of this basalt for- 

 mation layers of fossiliferous clay, sand, and ferruginous clay, of 

 limited thickness, are met with. 



(c) Loose layers of sand, tod one or two bands of clay, deposited 

 on the southern strand of the Isle of Disko, between the basalt rocks, 

 and therefore more recent than them. 



From all these localities, separated from each other by basalt 

 strata of 2000 feet thick, numerous fossils have been collected, in- 

 dicating according to Heer the Miocene period. As the strata are 

 nevertheless in geological respects widely different from each other, 

 I give an account of each separately, 



III. a. — Upper AtaneTcerdluTc strata. — At Atanekerdluk we meet 

 with fossils from two different periods, namely : (1) 300 — 400 feet 

 above the sea slate-beds with thin sand-layers and coal-seams (e),i 

 containing fossils imbedded in black slate and belonging to the 

 Upper Cretaceous (the Atane strata described in II.) ; and (2) thick 

 sand-beds, with occasional bands of slate (c, d), containing but few 

 fossils. At a height of 1000 — 1200 feet above the sea these layei's of 

 sand begin to be interstratified with a ferruginous clay, which, as 

 well as the sandstone that occurs in its immediate vicinity, is re- 

 markably rich in impressions of plants. The greatest part of the 

 fossils that have been brought home from Greenland belong to this 

 locality, of the discovery and scientific examination of which I have 

 already given a succinct account. Here I will only add a few words 

 on the hitherto imperfectly, and in part, inaccurately, described 

 geognostic relations of the place. 



By the name " Atanekerdluk," the Greenlanders properly desig- 

 nate a little peninsula, four hundred feet high, and connected with 

 the main land only by a small isthmus, which in the southern part 

 of the Waigat forms a projection from the cliffs of the land of Noursoak, 

 which are bold everywhere else, and whose brow is elevated even 

 close to the coast 3000 feet. The place was formerly the seat of a 

 Greenland colony assembled round a Danish "outpost" (Utliggare), 

 but is now deserted and uninhabited. Deserted house-sites and 

 paths, which in Greenland remain unobliterated for a great length of 



1 See further on, Figs. 12 and 13, 



J 



