1870.] BROWN—PHYSICS OF ARCTIC ICE. 691 
glacier-clay (or shall I call it upper laminated Boulder-clay ?) all the 
shells found are of species still living in the neighbouring sea, with the 
exception of two, Glycimeris siliqua, and Panopeea norvegica ; but as 
both of these are found in the Newfoundland sea, we may expect them 
yet to be shown to be living in Davis Strait*. I have seen this “‘fossili- 
ferous clay” up to the height of more than 500 feet above the sea, 
on the banks overlooking glaciers. At the Illartlek glacier, in 
69° 27' N. lat., this glacier-clay, deposited on the bottom of the sea 
by some former glacier, now formed a moraine; and on the surface 
of the ice I picked up several species of shells which had got washed 
out by the streams crossing over the glacier face. This Ilartlek 
glacier does not reach the sea; but supposing (as is doubtless the 
case elsewhere) that this clay had fallen on a glacier giving off ice- 
bergs, then the shells deposited in the old sea-bottom would be again 
carried out to sea, and a second time transferred to the bottom of 
Davis Strait! I found this clay everywhere along the coast and in 
Leer Bay, south-west of Claushayn ; in knots of this clay are found 
impressions of the Angmaksaett (Mallotus areticus, O. Fabr.), a fish 
still quite abundant in Davis Strait”. However, though this glacier- 
clay was found everywhere along the coast, yet it should be noticed 
that this was chiefly when glaciers had been in fjords, &c., and that 
often for long distances it would be sparingly found only in valleys 
or depressions. 
Other evidences of the rise of the Greenland coast are furnished 
by ruins of houses being found high above the water, in places where 
no Greenlander would ever think of building them now. On Hunde 
(Dog) Island, in the district of Egedesminde, there are said to be two 
such houses, and two little lakes with marine shells naturalized in 
them, and remains of fish-bones, &c., on the shores. I only heard this 
when it was too late, so that to my regret I had to leave the country 
without paying a visit to this remarkable locality. 
2. Fall.—This has been long known; but it is only within the 
last thirty years that special attention has been drawn to the sub- 
ject, chiefly by Dr. Pingel’®, who passed some time in Green- 
land. The facts are tolerably well known, how houses are found 
jammed in by ice in places where they never would have been built 
by the natives, as Proven, and so on. It may, however, be as well 
to recapitulate these proofs. 
Between 1777 and 1779 Arctander noticed that in Igalliko Fjord 
(lat. 60° 43’ N.) a small rocky island, “ about a gun-shot from the 
shore,” was entirely submerged at spring-tides; yet on it were 
the walls of a house (belonging to the old Norsemen) 52 feet in 
length, 30 in breadth, 5 in thickness, and 6 high. Fifty years 
1 Morch in Tilleg no. 7 til Rink’s ‘ Grénland,’ Bind 2, 8. 145. 
2 «Tn general, I may say,” remarks Agassiz, when speaking of the closeness 
with which Tertiary fishes agreed with recent ones, “ that I have not yet found a 
single species which was perfectly identical with any marine existing fish, except 
the little species (Madlotus), which is found in nodules of clay, of unknown age, 
in Greenland.” Iam convinced that the age I have given is correct. 
3 Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. ii. p. 208. 
