BROWN ON NOURSOAK PENINSULA, &C. 469 



Greenland, in 61° 13' N. lat. and 48° 9' W. long. (Green.) 

 The surface of the vein of cryolite was originally covered with a 

 layer of earth, clay, and gravel, which being removed, the vein is 

 exposed. Its greatest length is about 600 feet, breadth about 

 150 feet, and the extent about 53.000 cubic feet. It is composed 

 of two parts, one close to the Qord, the other to the east, and 

 separated by a rock from 5 to 15 feet high and about 100 feet 

 broad ; it is contained in gneiss crossed in several parts by veins 

 or layers running from north-west to south. The principal 

 mineral in the vein is, of course, cryolite, but as constant accom- 

 paniments are found quartz, ironstone, lead-ore, sulphide of iron, 

 sulphur, arsenic, and tin-stone, though the last two are very rare. 

 These substances are not evenly distributed through the mass ; 

 but the cryolite is partly found quite clean and unmixed, while 

 larger and smaller quantities are found containing more or less of 

 the above-mentioned minerals. A strip of the vein only a few feet 

 broad along the south and south-west boundary of the same is con- 

 spicuous for its richness in iron-stone and quartz, but especially 

 for lead-ore and sulphide of iron. The surrounding mountain is 

 also in certain places, viz., along the south-western boundary, 

 strongly impregnated with ores of lead, arsenic, tantalite, molyb- 

 dena, and tin. In the cryolite, according to Mr. Quale, are found 

 pieces of the surrounding rock, both of granite and trap, and it 

 therefore appears that the cryolite is newer than the gneiss and 

 the trap. The mine during the winter is filled with ice and snow, 

 and all blasting must therefore cease from November to April. In 

 the summer and autumn, from May to October, the mine can be 

 worked, except under unusually severe climatic conditions, and in 

 this time, with a gang of about 50 men, about 5,000 tons of cryolite 

 can be had. There is considerable difficulty in keeping the work- 

 men in health ; but from what I can learn there need be no imme- 

 diate fear of a failure of the mineral, though its distribution is 

 exceedingly local, being almost entirely confined, except in small 

 quantities, to the fjord mentioned. Excepting a small amount 

 found at Miask in Siberia, the mineral is confined to Greenland.* 



* In addition to the report quoted (Smithsonian Report, 1866) and a 

 report issued " On the Resources of Iceland and Greenland " by the United 

 States Government (1868), for further particulars regarding the geology and 

 economic value of cryolite, we may refer to the work of Rink already men- 

 tioned, and the three following works in Danish : — L. Jacobsen's " Et Aar i 

 Gronland," with sections and plans (1862) ; E. Bluhme's " Era et Ophold i 

 Gronland," 1863-1864 (1865),and V. Vallo's " Gronland" (No. xxxiv. of the 

 *' Danske Eolkeskrifter," 1861), as well as certain papers by Lieut. Bluhnie 

 (of which the above work by him is merely a reprint), in the Danish Magazine 

 " Era alle Lande," vol. i. Many details of the chemical and other charac- 

 teristics of cryolite and its derivative aluminium may be found in numerous 

 reports and communications scattered through various scientific periodicals, 

 by Wohler, H. St. Clair Deville, H. Rose, Bunsen, Charles N. A. Tissier, J. 

 W. Tayler, C. Brunner, Salvetat, Salm-Horstmar, Erdmann, Heeren and 

 Karmarsch, N. Debreeq, Mallet, Baff, H. Masson, Kobell, Bondet, Schotter, 

 Hirzcl, Degousse, Eabian, Christofle, Sauerwein, J. Thomsen, Scherer, A. 

 Strange, R. Wagner, Dallo, C. Hegemann, and others. Deville has published 

 a separate work, " De I'Aluminium" (Paris, 1859), and Tissier, a "Guide 

 Pratique de la Fabrication de rAluminium." 



