470 BUOWN ON NOURSOAK PENINSULA, &C. 



Graphite is found in considerable quantities at Karsok and 

 Niakornakj on the Noursoak Peninsula, and on some of the islands 

 lying off the Greenland coast, but hitherto it has not been found 

 profitable to export it to Europe. 



The basalt or trap extends right across the country north of 

 69° N. lat., and appears to date from Tertiary periods. It is par- 

 ticularly well developed in Disco Island and the Noursoak penin- 

 sula, covering an area of some 7,000 square miles, and rising in 

 some places to a height of 6,000 feet. Near Disco these traps 

 overlie the gneiss. Properly speaking, the Disco Bay traps are 

 not masses of lava, but " consolidated beds of ashes and volcanic 

 sand," which in time by pressure have assumed a crystalline 

 character, a fact pointed out also by Nordenskjold. In the pecu- 

 liarly disintegrating climate of Greenland the trap speedily decom- 

 poses. With these trap-rocks are almost invariably associated the 

 Miocene and Cretaceous beds.* 



2. The Red Sandstone. — This was originally discovered and 

 described by Pingel,f and is only found in the fjords of Igalliko 

 and Tunnudleorbik in about 61° N. lat. It is probably Devonian, 

 but owing to the absence of fossils the age of this interesting for- 

 mation cannot be accurately determined. The rock is, for the 

 most part, firm and hard in structure,^ and is composed of fused 

 quartz particles. It appears to be very local, but perhaps is partly 

 concealed under the continental ice. 



3. Carboniferous, — The coal long known in Greenland belongs 

 to a period much more recent than the true " Carboniferous." In 

 1870 and 1871, however, the Swedish Expedition, as well as my 

 friend Dr. Georg Pfaff, the inspecting surgeon, for many years 

 resident in Greenland, discovered Sigillaria,\ a Pecopterisl}\ &c., 

 on the Disco shore at Ujarasasuk. These fossils, probably belong- 

 ing to the true Carboniferous period, have, however, been as yet 

 only found in travelled blocks, not in rocks in situ, so that the 

 existence of the Carboniferous formation in Greenland is still 

 problematical. They may have drifted in ice from the Carboni- 

 ferous strata of Melville Island. One of these plants, sent me by 

 Dr. Pfaff, I submitted to the inspection of Mr. Robert Etheridge, 

 jun., F.G.S., Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of Scotland, 

 who says : *' The fossil is unfortunately only a blackened cast of 

 *' the Fern itself, all the vegetable matter having apparently 

 " vanished, except along the rachis, where a little carbonized 

 " material still remains. Its characters are rendered yet more 

 " indistinct from the nature of the matrix, a fine-grained grit. The 

 " Fern appears to be allied to those figured by Heer under the 

 " name of Gleichenia (G. Gieseckiana, Hr., G. Zippei, Corda, 

 " G, Rinkiana, Hr., &c.), but I think not identical with any of 

 *' them ; more probably a new species of either Gleichenia or 



* For an excellent description of the basalt of Greenland see Nordenskjold, 

 " Geol. Mag." vol. ix., pp. 421, &c. 



t " Afhand. Videnskab. Selskab. Skrifter," 1828. 



X Noticed also by Prof. O. Heer in his " Beitrage zur Steinkohlen-Flora 

 der arktische Zone," p. 10, note. — Editor. 



