PROF. NORDENSKIOLD, EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND. 419 



consequence of a combination of unfavourable circumstances, the 

 new researches were confined to the already well-examined 

 locality of Atanekerdluk and the opposite shore of the Waigat. 

 The new collections thus indeed completed the knowledge we 

 already possessed of the Flora of the Miocene Period in the 

 extreme north, but they opened no new views of the periods 

 which immediately preceded and followed it. 



As I had in 1858, and especially in the Spitzbergen Expedi- 

 tion of 1868, the opportunity of contributing in some measure 

 to the climatic history of the extreme North, this question inter- 

 ested me in the highest degree. It was especially desirable to 

 collect materials from the Cretaceous beds at Kome, and to obtain, 

 if possible, fossil Plants belonging to the long periods between the 

 Fern-forests of the Cretaceous and the Beech- and Plane-woods 

 of the Miocene Epoch ; as well of the ages intervening between 

 the last-mentioned era and the present time. This was the object 

 of the tours made by Dr. Nordstrom and myself during the 

 remainder of the summer. 



Aug. 1. We departed in the Inspector's yacht, with our own 

 whale-boat in tow, from Sandbugten to Flakkerhook, where 

 the Inspector took leave of us, promising to meet us again at 

 Atanekerdluk. We rowed, touching at a number of intermediate 

 places to collect plant-fossils, past Mudderbugten, round Isungoak, 

 to Ujarasusuk, whence I passed, in a boat obtained from the 

 Danish officer, to Ritenbenk's coal-mine, north of Kudliset, and then 

 crossed the Waigat to Atanekerdluk. Dr. Nordstrom stopped a 

 little longer to collect more fossils at Ujarasusuk, and thence 

 sailed in somewhat rough weather direct to our appointed place 

 of meeting. On this now uninhabited spot we all met on the 5th 

 of August. On the 9th we rowed farther, to Mannik, Atane, 

 Noursak, and Noursoak, where we remained a couple of days 

 (August 12 and 13). 



The time there was employed partly by a visit to the coal-beds of 

 Netluarsak, situated high up in the basalt beds between the two 

 last-mentioned places. From Noursoak the Inspector continued 

 his journey to Upernivik, while we rowed along the shore of 

 Omenakfjord, touching at Niakornet,* Ekkorfat, Karsok, and other 

 places, to Pattorfik. From Niakornet and Karsok two trips were 

 made into the interior ; to coal-beds at Ifsorisok and to the famous 

 graphite-bed at Karsok. From Pattorfik we rowed over the fjord, 

 though densely packed with icebergs, to Omenak, where we 

 arrived on the 20th of August. Here we were detained by the 

 ice a couple of days, during which we were lodged in the most 

 hospitable manner by the local Colonial Governor, Mr. Boye. 



On the 22nd, in the afternoon, we rowed over to the Assakak 

 glacier, and the following day onward to Kome, whence we went 

 on board a ship lying there belonging to the Greenland Trade, in 

 which, in the evening of the 24th, we set sail for Godhavn, where 

 we arrived on the 30th, and whence some excursions were made 

 to the spot where the Meteoric Iron was discovered a Ovifak ; 



* '•' Niakornak," on the map accompanying Prof. Nordenskiold's memoir. 



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