PROF. NORDENSKIOLD, EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND. 409 



have given rise to vast clay-beds, which attracted attention long 

 ago in these parts so ill-supplied with clay. Our Greeulanders 

 even mentioned that they contained petrified shells and "Ang- 

 maksater " (the Capelin *). These fossils are also mentioned by 

 Dr. Rink in his work on North Greenland ; and he adds, that a 

 collection which he had sent home had been examined by Dr. O. 

 A. L. Morch, who found the shells partly to belong to species 

 still existing on the coasts of North Greenland, partly to more 

 southern forms. As the collection of materials for forming a 

 judgment relative to the changes in the climate of the polar 

 regions was one of the principal objects of the purely scientific 

 part of our expedition, it was natural that we should pay especial 

 attention to these circumstances. 



Older glacialf fossils occur in N. Greenland in two different 

 formations, namely, either imbedded in clay (south of the Waigat), 

 or else at Pattorfik in a somewhat hardened basaltic sand, be- 

 coming a basalt-tufi^. The material of the clay -beds has evidently 

 been deposited by the glacier-rivers whose muddy water every- 

 where bursts out from under the inland ice ; but in general the 

 deposits are marine, which proves that these regions, in the course 

 of the present glacial period, have been elevated at least 100 feet. 



The Danes, on the other hand, who have long resided in Green- 

 land, declare most decidedly that a depression is now taking place 

 in most parts of the country. Herr Einar Hansen, who has for 

 19 years lived in the colony of Omenak, says that even in that 

 short period he has clearly seen this ; and it is still more evident 

 when we refer to the statements left by Herr Hansen's predecessor 

 relative to its height 60 years ago. The situation of the blubber- 

 house at Fredrickshaab, as well as many other facts in South 

 Greenland, shows the same. At Godhavn, in Disko, on the con- 

 trary, a rise is said to be taking place. It would be an im- 

 portant service if these circumstances, to which attention has 

 been called by Pingel, Brown, and others, were fully investigated, 

 with an accurate collection of all data relating to the subject; and 

 proper bench-marks fixed in appropriate spots among the skerries 

 along the coast of Greenland. 



As at the present time the glacial clay, covered with muddy 

 water, is poorly supplied with animal life, so the similar clays 

 deposited in ancient times present but a scanty variety of fossils. 

 In the clay-beds at Auleitsivikfjord, for example, we could 

 only find a few shells of Saxicava arctica, and in the thick clay- 

 beds of Sarpiursak we at first sought in vain for any remains of 

 animal life ; these, however, were very numerous on the shore. 

 Bivalves still united, inclosing, and often inclosed in, a hardened 



* " Angmaksset," Giesecke, &c. ; " Angmaksak," Reinhardt, &c. 



f Of course one finds in many places, at about the level of the sea, modern 

 deposits, with sub-fossil shells identical -with forms now living. Prom these 

 formations those of which we are now speaking differ by the great age of the 

 latter, and by the very different type of shell-remains found therein. This is 

 especially the case with the shell-deposits at Pattorfik, which appear to me to 

 belong to the earliest part of the glacial period of Greenland. A very con- 

 siderable, but lately formed, bank of shell-earth, with bones of Whales and 

 Walruses, alternating with beds of Sea-weed, occurs at Saitok, at the mouth of 

 Disko-^ord. Unfortunately we had only time to examine it cursorily. 



