GIESECKfe ON THE MINERALOGY OF DISKO. 339 



able beds of sandstone occur. It makes its appearance at Auk- 

 padlartok, Akkiarut, and Imnarsoit ; but the mass of greatest 

 magnitude is at Aumarurtiksaet, where it is accompanied with beds 

 of coal. From this spot the beds extend along the edge of the 

 sea, by Waygat, and become very considerable at Kudlisaet, where 

 the stratification is deposed in the following arrangement :— 



Sandstone, sometimes with globules of pyrites. 



Brown coal. 



Schistose [thin-bedded] sandstone. 



Pitch-coal. 



Shale [Argillaceous schistus, in orig.]. 



Brown-coal. 



Sandstone, with vestiges of Plants. 



The sandstone is very light, and sometimes friable, which is also 

 the case with the shale [clay-slate, oi'ig.]. The vegetable impres- 

 sions that occur in the lowest bed, seem to be those of the leaf of 

 Angelica archangelica. The most considerable bed of coal is 

 about 9 feet thick ; while some of the seams are not above 7 or 8 

 inches. 



It is nearly impossible to render this coal available, as scarcely 

 any shelter is to be found all along the Waygat for vessels of any 

 description, while a tempest almost continually prevails in the 

 Strait. It is the same case with the coal of Hare Island, gene- 

 rally known on account of the grains of amber which it con- 

 tains. There it occurs under an argillaceous wacke, in the fol- 

 lowing order : — 



Coarse conglomerate. 



— — — Argillaceous wacke. 



Brown-coal, with amber. 



< Fine-grained conglomerate. 



Sand. 



I have now only to mention the simple minerals which accom- 

 pany the Floetz-Trap-formation of this country, of which the 

 different members of the family of zeolite, its usual companion 

 in all quarters of the globe, are the most remarkable. 



1. Mesotype. — The most common sub-species of this mineral is 

 th^ fibrous and radiated. The last is found crystallised in rect- 

 angular prisms, truncated, with pyramids of four planes.* 



b. Capillary. Near Sergvarsoit in Disko there is a small cave 

 covered with capillary mesotype, which the Greenlanders 

 consider to be the hair of one of their magicians called 

 Angekok. When this variety is decomposed, it forms the 

 earthy or mealy zeolite. 



* Dr. Brewster has examined the Greenland mesotype, and has found it to 

 be an entirely different mineral from the Auvergne mesotype. In its crys- 

 talline form it resembles the Auvergne specimens, while, in its optical pro- 

 perties, it resembles the Iceland mesotypes. It is very remarkable that 

 capillary crystals from Sergvarsoit have been found by Dr. Brewster to be 

 different from the large crystals, and to be the same as those from Auvergne. 



y 2 



