482 BROWN ON NOURSOAK PENINSULA, &;C. 



Hare Island, at the northern entrance of the Waigat, and 

 Omenak, an island in the Omenak Fjord, the boundary of the 

 peninsula on the north, consist apparently of trap-rock. 



LVII. — Dr. PiNGEL on the Gradual Sinking of Part of 

 the South-West Coast of Greenland. 



[Reprinted, with Permission, from the Proceedings of the Geo- 

 logical Society of London, vol. ii., 1833-1838, p. 208 ; read 

 Nov. 18, 1835.] 



The first observations which led to the supposition 



that the west coast of Greenland had subsided were made by 

 Arctander between 1777 and 1779. He noticed, in the firth 

 called Igalliko (lat. 60° 43' N.), that a small, low, rocky island, 

 about a gunshot from the shore, was almost submerged at spring 

 tides, yet there were on it the walls of a house 52 feet in length, 

 30 feet in breadth, 5 feet thick, 6 feet high. Half a century 

 later, when Dr. Piugel visited the island, the whole of it was 

 so far submerged that the ruins alone rose above the Avater. 



The colony of Juliaueshaab was founded at the mouth of the 

 same firth in 1776 ; and near a rock, called the Castle by the 

 Danish colonists, are the foundations of their storehouse, which 

 are now dry only at very low water. 



The neighbourhood of the colony of Frederickshaab (lat. 62° N.) 

 was once inhabited by Greenlanders, but the only vestige of their 

 dwelling is a heap of stones, over which the firth flows at high 

 water. 



Near the well-known glacier which separates the district of 

 Frederickshaab from that of FiskensBS, is a group of islands 

 called FuUuartalik, now deserted ; but on the shore are the ruins 

 of winter buildings, which are often overflowed. 



Half a mile to the west of the village of Fiskenaes (lat. 63° 4' N.), 

 the Moravians founded, in 1758, the establishment called Lich- 

 tenfels. In 30 or 40 years they were obliged once, perhaps 

 twice, to move the poles upon which they set their large boats, 

 called " umiak " or women's boats. The old poles still remain as 

 silent witnesses, but beneath the water. 



To the north-east of the mother colony, Godthaab (lat. 64° 10' N.), 

 is a point called Vildmansnses by St. Egede, the venerable apostle 

 of the Greenlanders. In his time, 1721-1736, it was inhabited 

 by several Greenland families, whose winter dwelling remains 

 desolate and in ruins, the firth flowing into the house at high 

 tide. Dr. Pingel says that no aboriginal Greenlander builds his 

 liouse so near the water's edge. 



The points mentioned above Dr. Pingel had visited, but he 

 adds, on the authority of a countryman of his own highly deserv- 

 ing of credit, that at Napparsok, 10 Danish miles (45 miles 

 English) to the north of Nye-Sukkertop (lat. 65° 20' N.), the 



