DR. W. FLIGHT, GREENLAND METEORITES. 449 



Tlio surface of the south-western and western portion of the 

 Island of Disko is composed of basalt, which extends as f^ir as 

 Smith's Sound, and was probably erupted in Miocene times. In 

 only a few points of the island, Godhavn, the islets of Fortuna 

 Bay, and Nangiset, the primitive rock is observed. It consists for 

 the most part of slaty gneiss, passing over in some places into 

 mica-schist and often traversed by veins of pegmatite. Granite 

 was nowhere seen. 



Immediately overlying the gneiss is a basalt-breccia of dark 

 blackish-green colour, some two hundred feet in thickness. In 

 places the large angular fragments are cemented together with 

 calcite ; as a rule, however, they are so small that the rock at 

 some distance appears homogeneous. Few cavities are observed, 

 and they are usually filled with calcite, rarely with zeolites. 

 Above the breccia lies a bed of basalt- wacke of rust-brown colour, 

 and with amygdaloidal structure, the cavities containing apophyllite, 

 chabasite, levynite, stilbite, desmine, mesotype, analcime, and other 

 zeolites. Over this again rises a bed of basalt of vast thickness, 

 sometimes attaining one thousand feet, and of a dark-greyish 

 green hue ; it occurs not unfrequently in vertical regular six- 

 sided columns. The texture is generally crypto-crystalline, 

 though exhibiting in places the characters of anamesite and dole- 

 rite ; the few cavities are iilled with chalcedony, rarely with 

 zeolites. At Ovifak the cliffs rise to a height of 2,000 feet above 

 the sea-level. The upper portion consists of compact dark- 

 coloured basalt. Proceeding downwards on the nearly vertical 

 face, we see thick beds of red wacke and basalt clay, until already 

 at mid-height the face is hidden by vast screes of large and small 

 fragments of basalt. Where the cascades of surface-water have 

 removed the finer portions of the talus, and the face can be in- 

 spected to greater depths between the larger blocks of basalt, the 

 basalt-wacke is seen which overlies the breccia. 



On the shore below these screes, between high and low-water, 

 and within an area of about fifty square metres, twelve large and 

 many small iron masses were found. The six largest weigh re- 

 spectively 21,000 kilog., 8,000 kilog., 7,000 kilog., 142 kilog., 

 96 kilog., and 87 kilog. 



Thanks to the kindness of Prof. Nordenskjold, I am enabled to 

 give a representation (Plate IV.*) of the largest mass, about 19 

 English tons in weight, which is now preserved in the Hall of 

 the Royal Academy at Stockholm. The second block, weighing 

 about nine tons, has, as a compliment to Denmark, on whose terri- 

 tory the meteorites were found, been presented to the Museum of 

 Copenhagen. Another of the masses, vyeighing 195 lbs. 8 oz., is 

 preserved in the British Museum. 



For the earlier account of the discovery of these masses the 

 reader is referred to Nordenskj old's memoir,| and Nordstrom's 



* This Plate, which appeared in the April number of the Geol. Mag. with 

 Part IV. of Dr. Flight's paper, is not here reproduced. — Editor. 



t Geol. Mag. 1872, vol. ix., pp. 461, 462, and Plate VIIL, and above. 

 3G122. F F 



