192 



It is not easy to determine exactly the stratigraphie relation 

 of these rock to the basalt. We do not get the impression of 

 a normal layer between the eruptive sheets, but they are ob- 

 viously not older than the lower basalt-banks. Should that 

 have been the case the only possibility would have been that 

 the whole sandstone area was a mighty fragment broken off 

 by the basalt, but this theory cannot be supported by one who 

 has visited the place ; moreover, it is evincibly wrong. Pro- 

 fessor N. V. Ussing, in conjunction with Ravn's work, has 

 examined the different varieties of Tertiary rocks petrographic- 

 ally, and has shown that certain of them are wholly or partly 

 formed of basaltic material, which must consequently be older 

 than these sedimentary rocks ^). 



In two respects the investigatioa of this locality is of con- 

 siderable importance for our understanding of the geology of 

 the Arctic North Atlantic region. In the first place for a more 

 exact knowledge of the age of the Arctic Tertiary flora; as this 

 will be dealt with by Hartz, I will not enter into the question 

 here. Secondly, because here for the first time it has been 

 conclusively shown that volcanic activity in this large basalt 

 area was in full swing already in the Eocene time, while it has 

 usually been assigned to the xMiocene period. I shall return 

 to this question when I come to describe the basalts of this 

 territory. 



Retrospect of the Sedimentary Rocks of 

 E. Greenland. 

 Our knowledge of the geological conditions on the E. coast 

 of Greenland is not yet sufficiently extensive for it to be pos- 

 sible to show the exact sequence of the formations there in 

 sections. If, despite this, I have ventured to draw up and here 

 present a few strictly schematized sections ^), I have done so 

 chiefly in order to make clear the opinion I myself hold to be 



') Cfr. the description in Ravn's paper. 



'^) On the geological map accompanying this paper. 



