XLVIII. — On the Geological and Glacial PHiENOMENA of 

 the Coasts of Davis' Strait and Baffin's Bay. By 

 P. C. Sutherland, M.D., late Surgeon in the Arctic 

 Expeditions.* 



[Reprinted, with Permission, from the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe., 

 London, vol. ix., 1853, pp. 296-312. Read June 1, 1853.] 



From Cape Farewell to Cape Atholl. — The Danish settlers in 

 Greenland have pretty accurately laid down the geological character 

 of the eastern coast of Davis' Straits from Cape Farewell, about 

 lat 60°, to Cape Shackleton, about lat 74°.t Beyond this latitude 

 and down the west side of Davis' Strait, the coast is almost un- 

 known, from the difficulty experienced in approaching the land by 

 the Whaling and Discovery Ships, the only ships that ever attempt 

 to reach it. 



C(»mmencing at Cape FarewellJ we find the crystalline rocks§ 

 (granite, gneiss, &c.) forming a rugged and pinnacled coast, 

 intersected by fiords of great length, in which the tide is generally 

 very rapid, and the water is of considerable depth. The coast 

 indeed appears as if composed of a cluster of islands varying much 

 in size and lying in front of the great glacial plateau constituting 

 the continent of Greenland. 



Disco Island, Black Hook, S^c. — Proceeding northward we find 

 Disco Island, on the 70th parallel of latitude, to be chiefly composed 

 of trap-rock. Viewing this island from a distance of ten miles, 

 it presents a succession of steps, and appears to be made up of a 

 number of truncated cones, planted so closely together that the 

 bases of all meet ; some of them, at the level of the sea, boundiug 

 long and winding valleys, and others at every intermediate eleva- 

 tion, until the top itself is reached at a height of from 2,000 to 

 5,000 feet. At its southern extremity hypogene rocks (granite, 

 &c.) occur, from the sea-level to an elevation of about 100 feet, 

 and passing beneath the trappean formation. In South-east or 

 Disco Bay several clusters of islands are observed, all of which 

 appear to be composed of the same crystaUine rocks. On the S.E. 

 and N.E. shores of Disco Island, the N. shore of the Waigat Strait, 

 Hare Island, the S. shore of Omenak Fiord, Upernivik Naes 

 (North-east Bay), and in the neighbourhood of the Black Hook, 

 on the 72nd parallel of latitude, coal (lignite) has been found to a 



* See also Dr. Sutherland's " Journal of Capt. Penny's Voyage," &c. With 

 Appendix, 2 vols., 1852. And Capt. Inglefield's " Summer Search for Sir J. 

 *< Franklin," &c. With Appendix, 1853. — Editor. 



f See Rink's Geology of West Greenland, 1852, Trans. Roy. Soc. Denmark. 



X The author refers in this paper to numerous sketches presented by him 

 to the Geological Society ; these references are omitted here. — Editor. 



§ Copper, tin, lead, and silver ores have been discovered in the vicinity of 

 Julianes-Haab, about a degree north-west of Cape Farewell ; and at Upernivik, 

 about lat. 71°, graphite of tolerable purity occurs in abundance. 



