Frof. Norcknskiold— Expedition to Greenland. 459 



the shore is occupied by lofty gneiss rocks, between which a number 

 of glaciers project. One of these, Assakak glacier, has long been 

 celebrated for the charred tree-stems lying scattered on the surface 

 of the ice. The glacier itself does not reach down to the sea, but is 

 separated from the strand by a low foreland, covered with boulders 

 of gneiss, and passing without any discoverable line of demarcation 

 into the glacier, which is there also itself covered with gravel. The 

 gravel, however, here principally consists of angular fragments of 

 basalt, among which pieces of charred wood may be here and^there 

 remarked. Higher up the mass of charred or silicified wood increased 

 considerably, and was often piled together as if by human hand. 

 It was, however, easy to satisfy oneself that this was not the case, 

 but that the coal came from some stratum in the neighbourhood 

 of the glacier, on the surface of which it now lay scattered, chiefly 

 at a height estimated by me at about 300 feet. The nearest high 

 mountains surrounding the glacier seemed to consist of gneiss, horn- 

 blende slate, etc. A thick fog prevented us from seeing far inward, 

 and induced us to defer an excursion we had intended in that direc- 

 tion, which probably, as far as the object of finding the stratum 

 from which the pieces of wood had come is concerned, would not 

 have been crowned with success. In fact, it is probable that the 

 fragments of wood belong to a Tertiary stratum beneath the glacier. 

 After a careful search, pieces of clay and sandstone were found, con- 

 taining remnants of plants exactly similar to the fossils at Ifsorisok, 

 whence I draw the conclusion, that the strata, where the coal has 

 originated, were about contemporaneous with those of Ifsorisok and 

 Netluarsuk. 



The strata of this horizon are separated from the Lower Miocene 

 strata at Atanekerdluk by basalt-beds several thousand feet thick, 

 for the stratification of which an immense space of time must have 

 been required, and one would accordingly expect to find here remains 

 of a vegetation very different from the Miocene vegetation of Atane- 

 kerdluk. But this is not the case. According to Professor Heer, the 

 fossils in both these places have a purely Miocene stamp. As evidence 

 of this Professor Heer adduces the presence of Sequoia Langsdorfii, 

 at Ifsorisok, and that of Taxodiiim distichum, Glyptostrohus Europcsiis 

 and CJiamcBcyparis massiliensis, at Netluarsak. 



IV. — The Sinnifih strata. 



At Godhavn the basalt rests immediately upon gneiss, but only 

 a little way to the east the eruptive rock reaches the sea-level, 

 and in rowing here along the southern shore of Disko, one passes 

 by cliffs of basalt- tuff and basalt, often (as, for example, at the 

 Brannvinshamnen) broken up in the most splendid manner into 

 hexagonal basalt columns, basalt grottoes, and basalt arches. On 

 the other side of Brededalen the basalt first begins to be inter- 

 stratified with sand and slate beds, which probably are the beginnings 

 of those vast sand strata that meet us on both sides of the entrance 

 to the Waigat. 



Further on, at Puilasok and Sinnifik, the shore itself consists of 

 sand strata, with very thin slate__ seams, here and there interrupted 



