PROF. NORDENSKIOLD, EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND. 4l7 



At Kaja persons have been buried, not only in ordinary graves, 

 but in low caves formed at the foot of neighbouring steep cliffs of 

 gneiss by huge blocks of rock fallen from the mountain one over 

 another. Most graves in the vicinity of the colonies have been 

 long ago plundered by searchers after antiquities. This was not 

 the case in this distant locality ; nevertheless, all that we found in 

 the graves was a pair of water-ladles and arrow-heads. On the 

 other hand, as has been already said, a rich harvest was gathered 

 at the sites of the old houses.* Some skulls were also taken, the 

 Greenlanders not appearing to object to this, and it being a matter 

 of the greatest scientific interest to obtain perfectly authentic 

 skulls of the original inhabitants of Greenland before any mixture 

 of race had taken place. 



On the 3 1 St July we returned to Leerbugten, where we were 

 obliged to divide our little expedition into two parties. It was of 

 interest to the geologists to visit as many places along the coast as 

 possible, even if it were only for a few hours, whereas the botanist 

 and the zoologist for their researches, and especially for the pre- 

 servation of their collections, were obliged to remain at least some 

 days at each place. Dr. Berggren and Dr. Oberg therefore now 

 went together, to collect from the bottom of Disko Bay, and from 

 its mountainous shores, the fauna and flora of the place. Dr. 

 Nordstrom and I, on the other hand, hastened to the Basalt region, 

 to seek new materials for the climatological history of the extreme 

 north, in the coal-, sand-, and clay-beds to be met with there. The 

 harvest we gathered was rich beyond our expectations. 



In the first volume of his work on Greenland, Krantz has in- 

 troduced some notices of the mineralogy of the country, whence 

 we find that the coal-beds of Disko were then (1765) already 

 known. A statement of the Greenlanders is moreover adduced, 

 that in certain distant parts all sorts of fishes were to be found 

 turned into stone. Some years later the surgeon Brasen, who in 

 1767 made a voyage to these parts for his health, collected a 

 quantity of minerals, of which a catalogue is given in the third 

 volume of Krantz's work. This catalogue contains 25 items, in- 

 cluding different varieties of quartz, granite, graphite, pot-stone 

 (steatite), pumice (of which it is justly remarked, that it has 

 been brought hither by the currents from Iceland), and so forth. 

 In the beginning of the next century (1806-1813) C. Giesecke — 

 who was first an actor, afterwards a mineralogist with the title of 

 "Bergsraad," and lastly professor in Dublin, and Knight, made 

 extensive mineralogical excursions on the coasts of Greenland. 

 Giesecke himself has published but little of his observations,! 

 though carefully kept journals of his travels are preserved in 

 manuscript at Copenhagen. Numerous and important new dis- 



* Stone implements of various kinds were collected and purchased by us at 

 several other places, so that the collection we brought home consisted of above 

 1,000 specimens. Dr. Oberg made the richest harvest at Kikertak. 



t In Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. x. pp. 481-502, under the 

 word " Greenland," is an article written by Giesecke, containing, among other 

 things, some short notices of the mineralogy of that country. There is also a 

 work by him on Cryolite in the Edin. Philos. Journal, vi., 1822. See above. 

 36122. D D 



