208 



of Squalo-raia, discovered at Lyme Regis ; the other a new genus, 

 called by M. Agassiz Gyrostris mirabilis, and is probably the largest 

 known fish. This fossil was discovered at Whitby; but there have 

 hitherto been found only some detached bones of the head, of the 

 branchial arcs, and some portions of vertebrae and fins : traces of the 

 same fish have been recently observed at Lyme Regis, 



Nov. 18. — Thomas Sopwith, Esq., of Newcastle upon Tyne; Mr. 

 Frederick John Bell of Oxford-street ; David Urquhart, Esq., of 

 Grafton-street, Bond-street ; and Lieut.-Colonel Aitcheson of the 

 Fusilier Guards, were elected Fellows of this Society. 



A letter was first read from Dr. Pingel of Copenhagen to the Pre- 

 sident, containing a notice of some facts showing the gradual sinking 

 of part of the west coast of Greenland. 



The first observations which led to the supposition that the west 

 coast of Greenland had subsided, were made by Arctander between 

 1777 and 1779. He noticed, in the firth called Igalliko (lat. 60° 43' 

 N.), that a small, low, rocky island, about a gun-shot from the shore, 

 was almost entirely submerged at spring tides, yet there were on it 

 the walls of a house 52 feet in length, 30 feet in breadth, 5 feet thick, 

 and 6 feet high. Half a century later, when Dr. Pingel visited the 

 island, the whole of it was so far submerged that the ruins alone 

 rose above the water. 



The colony of Julianahaab was founded at the mouth of the same 

 firth in 1776 ; and near a rock, called the Castle by the Danish co- 

 lonists, are the foundations of their storehouse, which are now dry 

 only at very low water. 



The neighbourhood of the colony of Frederickehaab (lat. 62° N.), 

 was once inhabited by Greenlanders ; but the only vestige of their 

 dwelling is a heap of stones, over which the firth flows at high water. 



Near the well-known glacier which separates the district of Fre- 

 derickehaab from that of Fiskenass, is a group of islands called 

 Fulluartalik, now deserted j but on the shore are the ruins of winter 

 dwellings, which are often overflowed. 



Half a mile to the west of the village of Fiskenass (lat. 63° 4' N.), 

 the Moravians founded, in 1758, the establishment called Lichtenfeld. 

 In thirty or forty years they were obliged once, perhaps twice, or 

 move the poles upon which they set their large boats, called Umiak, 

 or Women's boats. The old poles still remain as silent witnesses, 

 but beneath the water. 



To the north-east of the mother colony, Godthaab (lat. 64"^ 10' N.), 

 is a point called Vildmansnass by St. Egede, the venerable apostle 

 of the Greenlanders. In his time, 1721 — 1736, it was inhabited by 

 several Greenland families, whose winter dwelling remains desolate 

 and in ruins, the firth flowing into the house at high tide. Dr. Pin- 

 gel says that no aboriginal Greenlander builds his house so near the 

 water's edge. 



The points mentioned above the writer of the letter had visited j 

 but he adds, on the authority of a countryman of his own highly de- 

 serving of credit, that at Najiparsok, 10 Danish miles (45 miles' En- 



