1853.] SUTHERLAND — ARCTIC REGIONS. 297 



generally very rapid, and the water is of considerable depth. The 

 coast indeed appears as if composed of a cluster of islands varying 

 much in size and lying in front of the great glacial plateau consti- 

 tuting the continent of Greenland. 



Disco Island, Black Hook, ^c. — Proceeding northward we find 

 Disco Island, on the 70th parallel of latitude, to be chiefly composed 

 of trap-rock * . Viewing this island from a distance of ten miles, it 

 presents a succession of steps, and appears to be made up of a number 

 of truncated cones, planted so closely together that the bases of all 

 meet; some of them, at the level of the sea, bounding long and 

 winding valleys, and others at every intermediate elevation, until 

 the top itself is reached at a height of from 2000 to 5000 feet. 

 At its southern extremity hypogene rocks (granite, &c.) occur, from 

 the sea-level to an elevation of about 1 00 feet, and passing beneath 

 the trappean formation. In South-east or Disco Bay several clusters 

 of islands are observed, all of which appear to be composed of the same 

 crystalline rocks. On the S.E. and N.E. shores of Disco Island, 

 the N. shore of the "Waigat Strait, Hare Island, the S. shore of 

 Omenak Fiord, Uperniidk Naes (North-east Bay), and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Black Hook, on the 72nd parallel of latitude, coal 

 (lignite) has been found to a considerable extent and of rather tole- 

 rable quality. The specific gravity of the coal is 1*3848, and the 

 following analysis of its proximate ingredients, made by Dr. Fyfe, 

 Professor of Chemistry, King's College, Aberdeen, upon a specimen 

 obtained from the same source as that now in the Museum of this 

 Society, enables us to judge of its value and purity : — 



Volatile matter 50*6 



Coke, consisting of 



Ash 9-84 



Fixed carbon 39*56 



49-40 



100-00 



I have not myself visited the beds of this mineral, but from the 

 recent elaborate reseaches of Dr. H. Rink, the enterprising Danish 

 traveller, it appears that sandstone is associated with this coal. 



At Cape Cranstoune, situate on the north side of North-east Bay 

 (Omenak Fiord), and immediately adjacent to the above two locali- 

 ties, the trap-rocks again occur, and thence extend northward, ap- 

 parently in one unbroken series, as far as Proven, in lat. 72° 20'. 

 Northward of this to Cape York, lat. 76°, with one or two slight ex- 

 ceptions, in lat. 73° 20' and lat. 74°, the numerous islands and every 

 part of the coast that protrudes from beneath the glacier are composed 

 of gneiss and granite. 



Capes York and Atholl. — At Cape York, lat. 7^° (Sketch No. 2, 

 fig., p. 301), and on to Cape Atholl, thirty to forty miles further north, 



* See Rink, op. cit. 



