FOSSILIFEROUS LOCALITIES—SOUTH SHORE. 363 
geologically and paleontologically, than any other portion of North Green- 
land. ‘The well preserved, but broken, Tertiary plant remains in the 
ironstones of the higher strata were early known to the Danish trade 
administrators and explorers of other nations, and among the contrib- 
utors of material derived from this locality and elaborated in Heer’s 
Flora Fossilis Arctica are found the names of Rink, Olrik, McClintock, 
Inglefield, Colomb, and Whymper. Brief geological descriptions were 
published by the earlier writers ; but Robert Brown * was the first to give 
a satisfactory description of the varied features of this most interesting 
locality. Later, Nordenskiold} and Steenstrup | made important addi- 
tions to the flora and contributed valuable details and illustrations. Fora 
detailed geological section the reader is referred to Brown’s memoir,§ and 
for illustrations of the dikes to the papers by Nordenskiold and Steen- 
strup. 
At Atanikerdluk the lowest Cretaceous rocks at tide level consist of 
small areas of rather strongly northward tilted thin sandstones and dark 
shales. At several points in the little peninsula they are unconformably 
covered by the massive coarse-grained doleritic basalt rising to a height 
of 320 feet.|| In the large ravine immediately to the east of Atanikerdluk 
the dip varies from 25° to 35° to the northeast. 
From the lower shales in the peninsula at Atanikerdluk a flora, 
chiefly ferns, gymnosperms, and dicotyledons, was described by Heer 
and correlated with the Atane flora. Back of the little peninsula the 
Cretaceous occurs near tide level, and consists of thin sandstones alter- 
nating with dark, often coaly shales. Near the foot of the slope poor 
plant material was gathered.4] Immediately opposite the western border 
of the isthmus connecting the little peninsula with the mainland, at 
about 200 feet above tide, occur thin dark shales filled with plant frag- 
ments. This, the “ Liriodendron bed” of Heer, has yielded an abun- 
dant flora—in fact, the richest one of the Atane series. The shales are 
very soft and badly broken, the plants being far less complete and dis- 
* In notes credited by Heer to Edward Whymper, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 447, 449-451. Also: Geolog- 
ical notes on the Noursoak peninsula, Disco island, and the country in the vicinity of Disco bay, 
North Greenland, by Robert Brown. Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vol. v, 1875, pp. 55-112, geological 
map. 
+ Geol. Mag., vol. ix, 1872, pp. 452-457, figs. 10-13. 
{ Meddelelser om Grénland, v, 1893, pp. 67-69 ; sketch map, p. 67; ravine section, p. 68; profiles 
and sections with dikes, f. 8,9; also in Heer, FI. Foss. Aret., vii, pp. 243-245, sketch map, geolog- 
ical map, and panorama-frontispiece. 
2 Reprinted in ‘‘ Manual and. Instructions for Arctic Exploration,” 1875, pp. 467-481. 
|| The writers are uncertain as to whether the Cretaceous rocks are here interstratified with the 
eruptive rock, or the latter is laccolitic in its nature. The whole mass seems to haye been affected 
and perhaps slightly metamorphosed by the later Tertiary epirogenic movements to which the 
locally variable dips are probably due. 
q This locality is farther eastward than that indicated in the panorama or sketch map given by 
Steenstrup. 
