XI 



ness. The Greenlanders, therefore, have every opportunity of 

 discovering all remarkable minerals, and the more they find the 

 Europeans interested in informations of this kind, the more 

 they exert themselves to procure such informations. In fact, 

 most of the mineralogicai localities have been first discovered 

 by Greenlanders. Therefore, if it may be said justly that Green- 

 land is comparatively well known with regard to the occurrence 

 of minerals, this is essentially due to the natives. 



The mineralogical museums in Copenhagen seem to have 

 received the first Greenland minerals of any interest towards the 

 close of the 18 th century. Thus in an exhaustive catalogue of 

 the collections of the university museum, composed by M. T. 

 Brünnich, who was the director of this museum 1770—1789, 

 only five minerals from Greenland are mentioned (garnet, mag- 

 netite sand, mica, quartz, and «zeolithus spathosus»); but al- 

 ready in Schumachers "Versuch eines Verzeichnisses der in 

 den Dänisch-Nordischen Staaten sich findenden einfachen Mine- 

 ralien", published 1801, somewhat more than thirty Greenland 

 minerals are described, and among these two are of special 

 interest, viz. the large crystals of tourmaline (from Karusulik) 

 and the cryolite. All specimens of any importance, which Schu- 

 macher had before him, seem to have been brought to Copen- 

 hagen by Greenland missionaries, who had obtained them from 

 the natives. There is, therefore, no question of any knowledge 

 of the localities. 



We now arrive at the excellent mineralogical investigations 

 made by K. L. Giesecke 1806—1813. He started by his own 

 initiative, but was supported by the Danish government. The 

 outer circumstances at the time were extremely unfavourable, 

 as the war in Europe impeded the communication with Green- 

 land and the conveying of provisions and other necessaries; 

 but nevertheless Giesecke, by toilsome travels during eight years 

 succeeded in making a mineralogical and geological exploration 

 of almost all the parts of Greenland then known. He travelled 



