AND CIRQUES IN NORWAY AND GREENLAND. 143 



layers of coal ; these formations are covered by a thick sheet of 

 basalt. From them Professor Nordenskjold has made rich collections 

 of fossil plants of the Cretaceous and Miocene periods ; and by exa- 

 mining these plants Dr. Heer has shown that the climate of North 

 Greenland must once have been subtropical, much like that now 

 prevailing in the Canary Islands, or in Northern Egypt, with a mean 

 annual temperature which cannot have been lower than 21° or 22° C. 



In Upernivik Island, and in other places on the south side of 

 Urnanak Fjord, one sees how the great glaciers are cutting valleys 

 through these fossiliferous strata, and dragging down to the moraine 

 or to the sea boulders containing the half-effaced remnants of a sub- 

 tropical vegetation. 



Like the west coast of Norway, Greenland is intersected b}' many 

 large fjords, which, when not filled wholly or partially by glaciers, 

 pierce deep into the country. In front of the fjords near the open sea 

 there is a " Skiirgard " of larger and smaller islands, perfectly resem- 

 bling the " Skiirgard " of Norway. Generally the part of Greenland 

 nearest to the sea, or " the outer land," which is not covered by eternal 

 snow, strikingly resembles the outermost skerries and islands on 

 the west coast of Norway, both in the rocks and in the configura- 

 tion of the islands. The hills around the fjords in North Greenland 

 vary much in height, being sometimes ridges only a few hundred 

 feet above the sea, sometimes mountains 4000 feet, and occasionally 

 even 6000 feet or a little more. 



On the whole, the part of North Greenland here described can be 

 geologically and orographically divided into three districts : — (l)the 

 land around Disko Bay ; (2) Disko Island, with the tableland of 

 Niigssuak peninsula ; (3) the high land of Umanak. 



(1) The land around Disko Bay consists of gneiss. It is of no 

 great elevation, in the southern part rarely rising to 1000 feet ; in 

 the northern part, however, in Arveprindsen Island, it rises up to 

 2000 feet. The islands along the coast of the district of Egedes- 

 minde are small, low, and rounded. Two large ice-fjords intersect 

 the mainland, that of Jakobshavn in the central part, and that of 

 Torsukatak in the north. 



(2) The configuration of the land round Disko Bay contrasts 

 strikingly with that of Disko Island, which, as already said, is com- 

 posed of formations belonging to the Cretaceous epoch and of basalt. 

 The difference in rock -structure has produced a marked difference in 

 scenery. Disko Island and Nugssuak peninsula are less cut into 

 islets and headlands than the more undulating tracts of gneiss round 

 Disko Bay, but form basaltic tablelands divided into two parts by 

 the Waigat fjord, with a generally corresponding structure on either 

 side. 



No great glacier from the Inland Ice intersects this part of North 

 Greenland, which is connected with the ice-clad inner land only by 

 a narrow isthmus ; but very many glaciers descend into valleys from 

 the high snow-clad interior of Disko Island and of Nugssuak penin- 

 sula ; in both these there are mountains from 3000 to 4000 feet high. 

 The highest basaltic mountains of Greenland are probably situated 



