295 



Dr. Engell describes the conditions in the following manner^): 

 «West of the great lake we And a raised sea-bed. One meter 

 above the surface in the great lake is a sandy layer where 

 the common mussel occur in such abundance that they in 

 some places form a shell layer. I might in several places 

 around the lake point out traces of this raised sea- bed, but it 

 was only on the western side that I found fossils. The surface 

 of the raised sea-bed ... is overlaid by a deposit consisting 

 of sand, gravel and rough stones». On the accompanying chart 

 (Tavle III) the surface of the great lake is indicated to be 

 10 meters above the sea-level, the mussel-layer is thus situated 

 ca. 11 meters above the sea-level. 



Dr. Engell brought home from this locality some shells of 

 the mussel [Mytilus edulis L.); they originate from grown up 

 specimens of a length up to 73 mm.; they are as yet partly 

 united and filled with sand and fine gravel. In a small sample 

 of the layer I moreover found the following species : 



Tellina balthica L. A specim.en with united valves. Tel- 

 Una calcaria Chemn. A very small specimen. Saxicava arc- 

 tica L. My a truncata L. Littorina rudis Mat. Littorma 

 obtusata L. var. paUiata Say. Balanus sp. 



Besides Dr. Engell brought two other valves. Before I 

 informed him to which species they belonged and which con- 

 clusions might be drawn from them I questioned him as to 

 their origin pretending that I took it for granted that these 

 shells by chance had come among the samples from Greenland, 

 but Dr. Engell persisted in saying that he had brought them 

 home from his first Greenland voyage (1902), he was even able 

 with certainty to remember the locality where he had taken 

 them: they were lying in loose sand over the mussel-layer at the 

 before mentioned great lake, 11 — 12 meters above the sea level, 

 and the bed was to be seen on the surface. 



M.C.Engell: Undersøgelser og Opmaalinger ved Jakobshavns Isfjord 

 og i Orpigsuit i Sommeren 1902; Medd. om Grønland, XXVI, 1904 (p. 64). 



