HEER, ARCTIC FOSSIL PLANTS* 37V 



and lavas, several thousand feet in thickness, and approximately 

 in the middle of the trap-formation. This group is found at : — 



1. Netluarsuk, N.W. of Atane, between Noursoak and Noursak, 

 at the mouth of the Waigat, and near the N.W. end of the Nour- 

 soak Peninsula, about 1,000 feet above the sea. Sand, shale, coal, 

 and brown clayironstone, with plant-remains, between basalts. 



2. Ifsorisok, N.E. of Netluarsuk (about 70° 40' N. lat.), 

 12 miles from the coast, and about 2,250 feet above the sea. A 

 soft sandy clay, alternating with thin coal-seams, and containing 

 the plants, rests on basalt, which further inland forms high 

 mountains. The Kinnitak, between Niakornak and Ekkorfat, is 

 the nearest, and reaches the height of 6,000 feet, and apparently 

 consists wholly of eruptive rock. 



3. Asakak. Not far from Kome, on the north side of the 

 Noursoak Peninsula, is the Asakak Glacier, and among the 

 stones on its surface carbonised and silicified wood abounds, also 

 some fragments of coarse sandstone containing Miocene Plants. 

 The place of origin could not be discovered. 



m. The uppermost group consists of some sand and clays, on 

 the south coast of Disco, lying on and in the basalt, which there 

 overlies gneiss ; and it was probably contemporary with the last 

 of the great post-cretaceous volcanic eruptions of the district. 

 The fossil plants from Puilasok, having an Upper-Miocene cha- 

 racter, belong to this series, and occur in black or dark-grey sand, 

 or soft sandy shaly clay ; but Prof. Heer thinks that the plants 

 from the clayironstone of Sinifik, on the same coast, must be some- 

 what older. The soft sandstones and sandy shales of Puilasok, 

 with their thin irregular coal-seams, are represented by Norden- 

 skiold's section, at p. 4 of O. Heer's " Nachtrage," &c., as lying in 

 nearly horizontal layers to the height of 200 feet, on and against 

 the eroded slope of horizontally stratified basalt and basalt- tuff. — 

 O. Heer, "Nachtrage zm' mioc. Flora Gronland's," 1874, pp. 3, 4.] 



East Coast of Greenland. — The German Expedition has 

 brought from the East Coast of Greenland some vegetable 

 fossils, many of which are, however, only undistinguishable 

 carbonaceous traces. Lieutenant Payer, however, brought some 

 specimens from Sabine Island which could be identified. They 

 belong to Taxodium distichum and Populus arctica, with a 

 fragment which probably belongs to Diospyros brachysepala. 

 These trees have been discovered in West Greenland, and the 

 two first-named in Spitzbergen also, so that they probably 

 flourished over the entire district from the west coast to 

 Spitzbergen. In his paper on Spitzbergen, Prof. Heer had 

 remarked that we might expect to find the plants which were 

 common to the West Coast of Greenland^'and to Spitzbergen on 

 the East Coast of Greenland also. This anticipation has now been 

 confirmed by the discovery of these two species, and it may fairly 

 be expected that the fossiliferous sandstones and marls of Ger- 

 mania Mountain in Sabine Island contain many of the missing 

 forms. 



