496 HOWORTH ON SURFACE ELEVATION IN ARCTIC REGIONS. 



which are now converted into lakes or salt-marshes. In like 

 manner it has been proved that the regions of the Amur are 

 gradually being upheaved, for, in order to maintain its level, 

 the river has constantly to holloAV out its bed between the cliffs ; 

 and on the plateau by the river-side semicircular sheets of water 

 may still be seen, which are evidently former windings of the 

 Amur.* [Alterations of level and evidences of desicca- 

 tion in the Japanese and Chinese regions, in Central Asia, and the 



Persian and Caspian areas are next noticed.] 



I have now completed a rough and slight survey of the great 

 mass of land that surrounds the North Pole, and have shown 

 that, so far as we have any evidence, that great mass is under- 

 going a general movement of upheaval; or, to be perfectly 

 correct, we find on it traces in all directions that there has 

 been a movement of upheaval since there was any subsidence ; 

 and in those areas, which are accessible enough to enable us to 

 experiment, as in Sandinavia, &c., we find that the movement is 

 going on now at a greater or less rate. This general movement 

 of Circumpolar land having its focus apparently near the Pole, 

 has no doubt been coincident with a corresponding revolution 

 in other physical phenomena, such as climate, the distribution 



of magnetism, &c There is one fact which is very obvious 



that in the vast area over which we have shown that there 



are traces of upheaval, there is not, so far as I know, a single 

 volcano. Tf the ancient theory that volcanoes are due to the 

 eruptive forces of the earth be true, this^ fact requires expla- 

 nation 



LIX. — Rocks and Minerals of Greenland. By Dr. H. 

 Rink. (From " Till^eg No. 7," of Dr. H. Rink's " Bes- 

 krivelse af Gronland," 1857, [This ought to have 

 followed " Sutherland," at p. 368, in order of date.] 



In the ''Primitive" rocks, which constitute a great portion of 

 Greenland, granitic and gneissic varieties, with or without horn- 

 blende, and with garnets and magnetite, are common. Trap-rocks 

 also occur with them. As bedded masses in these granitoid rocks, 

 hornblende-schist, with garnet, is most common (shown in Rink's 

 sketch, at p. 140, as traversing the Omenak Hills). Actinolite, 

 asbestos, and pyrites occur in this schist. Dolomite, with tre- 

 molite and other minerals, occurs in the Omenak, Christiaushaab, 

 and Egedesminde districts. Anthophyllite, with actinolite, is 

 noticeable atUpernavik ; where also occurs a fel spathic stratum with 

 quartz, dichroite, and garnet. As veins in the granitic rocks, red 

 felspar is found, with magnetite, apatite, allanite, zircon, and 

 pyrites ; also white felspar and tourmaline. Epidote also, with 

 iron-glance and calcite, is disseminated in the rock, and barytes 



* Reclus, vol. ii. p. 660. 



