PROF. NORDENSKIOLD, EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND. 425 



that the strata at Kome and Atanekerdluk belong to two widely 

 different periods, showed that this is not the case. Subsequently 

 a rolled block was found on the shore of Disko containing an im- 

 pression of a Sigillaria. This stone, however, appears either to 

 have been brought hither as ballast or by ice. At least, we could 

 not discover anywhere in these parts beds belonging to the old Car- 

 boniferous Period.* Heer's discovery was not only confirmed by 

 our researches last summer, but we also discovered Plant-remains 

 from one or two geological horizons quite new for Greenland. 



In the description of these I follow the chronological order, 

 beginning with the oldest. 



I. — The Kome Strata (older division of the Cretaceous forma- 

 tion, according to Heer). 



By this name I designate a sedimentary, coal-bearing formation, 

 occurring here and there between Kome and Ekkorfat, on the 

 coast of the Noursoak Peninsula, S.W. of Omenak. The name 

 is taken from the place where the chief coal-bed is found, and 

 which, in all probability, yielded the plant-impressions brought 

 away by Giesecke and Rink. These strata, however, occur not 

 only at Kome, but all along the above-mentioned coast, with the 

 exception of a few interruptions by gneiss hills. The Kome strata 

 rest immediately upon undulating gneiss-beds, probably filling up 

 old valleys and depressions between them. Higher up the gneiss 

 is covered by eruptive rock. The strata generally lie tolerably 

 horizontal ; but sometimes with a dip inwards of as much as 20°. 

 They are most developed in the neighbourhood of the two ex- 

 tremities, Ekkorfat and Kome, where the thickness exceeds 1,000 

 feet. 



As the fossil Plants occur almost exclusively in the lowest strata, 

 we cannot, without a careful examination of the few fossils we 

 have brought home from the upper strata, decide whether the 

 whole of this vast series of strata belong to the same geological 

 formation or not. It is, however, probable that the upper portion, 

 distinguished by its thick coal-bed, belongs to the next division. 



Most of the Kome strata consist of sand or soft sandstone, 

 often interstratified with shale | and coal-bands. The shale is 

 generally mixed with sand, and, as it were, thoroughly corroded 

 by acids ; and in these cases it is so loose that the fossil Plants 

 it may contain can scarcely be preserved. Fortunately there is 

 also found, especially in the neighbourhood of the lowest coal- 

 beds, a harder, sometimes argillaceous, sometimes talcose [?], shale, 

 with numerous impressions, chiefly of Ferns and Coniferae (not 



* Fossils really belonging to the Coal -period have been since found by Dr. 

 Nauckhoff, at Kudliset (Expedition of 1871). 



f Among the somewhat foreign words and expressions revised in this re- 

 print, the word " slate " (Skifer, Swed., Schiefer, Germ., &c.) is replaced by 

 " shale " (Skiferlager, Swed. ?), used in the nomenclature of English geologists 

 for the laminated clays, of various consistence, which constitute so large a 

 portion of these Tertiary and Cretaceous formations. The word " slate " is 

 applied by geologists in England only to roofing-slate and some metamorphic 

 schists. — Editor. 



