280 



Paleozoic and from the older Triassic time a series of rocks 

 over 2000 m thick, whose characteristic qualities have been 

 described in the foregoing pages. Several formations can be 

 distinguished, but it seems probable that more exact investiga- 

 tions in this respect would take us much further, for though 

 the fossils here are both scarce and badly preserved, experience 

 teaches us that they are not so uncommon as was first as- 

 sumed and special investigations carried out by an experienced 

 paleontologist should render possible a good exposition of the 

 stratigraphy of the district, especially as the formations in 

 question to a great extent show but comparatively unimportant 

 disturbances and irregularities. For the present, however, it 

 is only possible in the main to distinguish local formations, 

 whose mutual relations cannot be determined with certainty. 



The strong analogy that all these rocks show in their 

 appearance, goes to prove that the physical conditions during 

 all these periods were somewhat similar. To what extent al- 

 ready then a shore was present could not be determined. 

 Litoral deposits occur at several levels, but in addition there 

 are formations that must have come into existence in fairly 

 deep water. It is not proved and scarcely likely that any large 

 fault divides the coast-belt from Ihe inner mass, but yet 1 

 consider it probable that the occurrence here of these younger 

 formations stands in connection with the appearance of a large 

 fracture line that still marks the coast of E. Greenland. Large 

 disturbances occur, as far as is known, only among the oldest 

 strata, the Silurian formation, and only within certain parts of 

 these. Fresh investigations are required to decide whether we 

 are here in the presence of the traces of an old, folded moun- 

 tain-chain, or of disturbances in the way of flexures induced 

 by the subsidence of the strata. The sinking, during certain 

 periods, has been accompanied by considerable volcanic erup- 

 tions, among the products of which may be noted not only a 

 series of porphyries, but also augite-syeniles with appendant 



