460 Prof. Nordenshbld — Expedition to Greenland. 



by basaltic cliffs, with a worn and smooth surface. The sand strata 

 around the cliffs were not in appearance distinguishable from the 

 sand still heaped by the action of wind and wave around the basalt 

 rocks on the shore. Everything seems to show, that in many places 

 hereabouts,' we have before us sand strata deposited between basalt 

 rocks. In this case these layers are more recent than the whole 

 basalt formation, and the fossils they contain, imbedded partly in an 

 extremely brittle argillaceous slate, partly (at Sinnifik) in hard 

 marl nodules resembling those at Atanekerdluk, but not containing 

 very much iron, are of interest as indicating the limit of the period, 

 during which this tract was the scene of the vast volcanic eruptions, 

 which have given rise to the basalt masses of North-west Greenland. 

 These fossils consist, at Puilasok, only of fragments of leaves of trees 

 {Salix, Mijrica, Platanus aceroides, Cratcsgus antiqua, etc.) ; at Sinnifik, 

 both leaves of trees and Coniferse {Sequoia Langsdorfii, Taxites OlriUi, 

 Popidiis arctica), and, according to Heer, bear constant witness to a 

 Miocene, perhaps an Uppef Miocene epoch. If this be so, the 

 volcanic agency in these parts commenced during the Cretaceous 

 and terminated previously to the close of the Miocene period. The 

 basalt-beds in the Cretaceous and Lower (Greenland) Miocene are, 

 however, quite trifling in comparison with those which cover the 

 Miocene deposits at Atanekerdluk, Ujarasusuk, Isungoak, etc. Ac- 

 cordingly in these (Greenland) districts the volcanic action has 

 attained its greatest intensity in the Middle Miocene. 



During our involuntary stay at Godhavn, I made an excursion, 

 in company with some comrades, in a boat manned by Green- 

 landers, to the spot whence the Eudolph meteoric iron was sup- 

 posed to have been taken, namely, the old whaling-station of For- 

 tune Bay, situated in the neighbourhood of Godhavn. On arriving 

 there, I ordered the Greenlanders to look after heavy, round, rusty- 

 brown stones, which 1 Tcnew would certainly he found somewhere there- 

 about. It was in vain. No meteoric stones, or rather pieces of 

 meteoric iron, were on this occasion to be found ; but before leaving 

 the spot I again repeated to the Greenlanders, that pieces of iron of 

 the nature described were most unquestionably to he met with some- 

 where in that neighbourhood, and I promised them a reward, if they 

 could, against my return in the autumn, discover them. 



When, at the end of August, we returned from Omenak to God- 

 havn, one of the Greenlanders communicated to me, with many 

 lively gestures to express their size, shape, etc., that they had 

 decidedly hit upon the stones I had described. A small specimen 

 was shown, which really confirmed the statement. 



The place where the iron masses were found was not, however, 

 at Fortune Bay, but one of the shores most difficult of access in the 

 whole coast of Danish Greenland, namely Ovifak, or the Blue Hill, 

 which lies quite open to the south wind, and is inaccessible, even in 

 a very moderate sea, between Laxe-bugt and Disko-fjord. I 



1 In this neighbourhood we even meet with sand layers lying beneath the basalt. 



