Prof. Nordensltidld — Expedition to Oreenland. 461 



scarcely need mention that this discovery completely altered the 

 plan for our fm-ther excursions. Our intention had been to employ 

 the rest of our sojourn in Greenland in an examination of the basalt 

 formations between Skandsen and Grodhavn, and we had therefore, 

 immediately on our arrival at Godhavn, hired two whale-boats 

 manned with Greenlanders, with a view to rowing in short day- 

 journeys with them along the coast of Disko to the eastward of 

 Godhaven. These boats, on the morning when the discovery of the 

 meteorites was made, lay ready and provisioned on the strand. We 

 immediately set sail, and sailed favoured by a tolerably good wind, 

 not eastward, but westward to Ovifak, where we arrived the same 

 evening before sunset. The sea was calm, so that it was possible to 

 land, and the very stone at which we lay to was itself a piece of 

 meteoric iron, probably the largest piece as yet known. On searching 

 more carefully we further discovered two large and a great number 

 of smaller pieces of meteoric iron scattered over an area of a few 

 square fathoms in the vicinity of the large stone. 



The meteorites lay as on the accompanying map (PL VIII., 

 Figs. 1 and 2)^ and ideal section, between high and low water, 

 among rounded gneiss and granite blocks, at the foot of a vast basalt 

 slip, from which, higher up the perpendicular, horizontally stratified 

 basalt-beds of Mount Ovifak projected. Sixteen metres from the 

 largest iron block a basalt ridge of a foot high rose from the 

 detritus on the strand, and could be followed for a distance of four 

 metres, and was probably part of the rock. Parallel with this and 

 nearer to the strand ran another similar ridge, also about four metres 

 long. The former contained lenticular and dish-shaped blocks of 

 nickel iron, in external appearance, chemical nature, and relation to 

 the atmosphere (weathering), like meteoric iron. On being polished 

 and etched this iron exhibited fine Widmanstadt's figures. The 

 native iron lay imbedded immediately in the basalt, separated from 

 it at the most by a thin coating of rust. Moreover, in that basalt, in 

 the neighbourhood of the blocks of native iron, nodules were found of 

 Hisingerite, evidently formed by the oxidation of the iron, as also 

 small imbedded particles of nickel iron. 



The meteorites themselves were of various colours, from that of 

 tombac to rusty brown, and at least in some places had a metallic lustre 

 on the surface. Here and there one could discover upon their surface 

 and in the iron nearest the surface pieces of basalt or fragments of 

 a crust of basalt perfectly similar to the basalt in the above-described 

 ridge. The inner part of the iron mass contained no basalt, and as 

 far as analysis has yet been able to discover, scarcely any traces of 

 silica. In the neighbourhood of the smaller stones the sand and 

 gravel were rusty with the effects of the weathering of the meteorites, 

 yet their upper surface was usually pretty pure, but the under sur- 

 face generally rusty. The larger stones were strongly polar-mag- 

 netic, so that the upper part of the stones attracted the north, the 

 lower part the south pole of the magnetic needle. 



1 This Plate was inserted at p. 355, Geol. Mag. for August last, with Part II. of 

 Prof. Nordenskiold's paper. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



