448 , DR. W. FLIGHT, GREENLAND METEORITES. 



Geological Magazine through a translation of his original memoir. 

 While exploring in Danish Greenland in 1870, his attention was 

 directed to the possibility that meteorites might be met with in 

 Disko Island, by the accidental discoveiy of a block of meteoric 

 iron in some ballast which had been taken in at the old whaling 

 station at Fortuna Bay, near Godhavn. and he urged the Green- 

 landers to search the district for masses of that metal. He pro- 

 ceeded to explore Omenak and other islands north of Disko, and, 

 on his return to Godhavn at the end of August in the same year, 

 not only learned from the Greenlanders that masses such as he 

 sought for had been found, but he was shown a specimen of 

 meteoric iron in confirmation of their statement. They were dis- 

 covered, not at Fortuna Bay, but further eastward along the shore 

 at Ovifak, between Laxe-bugt * and Disko Fjord, a spot than 

 which there is none more diflB.cult to reach along the whole of 

 the coast of Danish Greenland, as it lies open to the south 

 wind, and is inaccessible in even a very moderately rough sea. 

 Nordenskjold at once chartered two whale boats, manned by 

 Greenlanders, and set sail for Ovifak, where, the sea being calm, 

 they were able to land, and the stone at which they lay to proved 

 afterwards to be the largest block of meteoric iron that they were 

 to discover. 



As the readers of this Magazine are already familiar with the 

 description which Nordenskjold gives {see above) of the condition 

 under which these masses are found, we may break off here to 

 consider the more recently published report of Nauckhoff, the 

 Geologist of the Expedition of 1871, of the peculiar geological 

 characters of the rocks at Ovifak (Blafjell, or Blue Cliffs) witli 

 which they are associated. 



Cliem. News, November 17th, 1871. — A. E. Nordenskjold, Remarks ou 

 Greenland Meteorites; Abstract Proc. Geol. Soc, December 20th, 1871. — 

 T. Nordstrom, Ofv. Vet.-Akad. Fork., 1871, 453. See also Geol. Mag., VIII. 

 570, and IX. 88. — A. E. Nordenskjold, Les Meteorites ; Revue Scientiftque, 

 1872, ii. [2], 128. — G. A. Daubree, Compt. llend., Ixiii. 1268 ; Compt. Rend., 

 Ixxiv. 1542 ; Compt. Rend., Ixxv. 240.— E. Ludwig, Mi7i. Mitt., 1871, i. 109. 

 — E. Hebert, Seance Soc. Geol. de France, February 5th, 1872 ; Revue 

 Scientifique, \. [2], 858. — ^. de Chancourtois et M. Jenuatez, Seance Soc. 

 Geol. de Francej February 19th, 1872 ; Revue Scientifique, i. [2],-905.— G. 

 A. Daubree, Seance Soc. Geol.de France, May 20th, 1872; Revue Scien- 

 tifique, i. [2], 1169 ; Amer. Jour. Sc, iii. 71 and 388. — F. Wohler, iVac^nc/i^ 

 K. Gesell Wiss. zu GOttingen, 1872, No. 11, 197 ; Fogg. Ann., cxlvi. 297 ; 

 Ann. der C/iew., clxiii., 247 ; Nachricht.K. Gesell. Wiss. zu Gottingeji, 1872, 

 No. 26; Ann. der Cliem., clxv. 313. — G. Rose, Zeit. Deutsch. Geol. Gesell., 

 xxiv. 174. — G. von Helmerssen, Zeit. Deutsch. Geol. Gesell., xxv. 347. — 

 C. Rummelsberg, Ueber die Meteoriten {Samm. Wiss. Vortrage), pages 14 

 and 18.— C. W. Blomstrand, Ber. Deutsch. Chem. Gesell., iv. 987. — G. 

 Nauckhoff, Svenska Vet. Akad. Handl., 1872, i. No. 6 ; Ber. Deutsch. Chem. 

 Gesell., vi. 1463 ; Mineralogische Mittheilungen, 1874, 109. — G. Tschermak, 

 Mineralogische Mittheikingen, 1874, 165; Der Naturforscher, 1874, Nos. 49- 

 52. — J. Lawrence Smith, Compt. Rend., Ixxx. 301. — ^For a map of Disko see 

 also Geographical Mag., February, 1875. 



* See Geol. Mag., 1872, vol. ix. FI. VII. In this map two bays called 

 " Laxebugt" are given ; the one mentioned above is situated to the south of 

 Disko Fjord. 



