DISCO. 
47 
ics approaches it for specific variety, and in density it 
far exceeds its Alpine congener. Two birches {Betula 
alba and nana), three willows {Saliz lanata, S.glau- 
ca, and S. herbacea), that noble heath, the Andromeda 
{A. tetragona), the whortle-berry ( Vaccinmm vitis-idea 
and V. uliginosiim), the crow-berry {Enijtetrum ni- 
grum)^ and a Potentilla, were, in one instance, all 
wreathed together in a matted sod, from whose intri- 
cate net- work, rising within an area of a single foot, I 
counted no less than six species of flowering plants. 
The appearance of such turf, where the tree growths 
of more favored regions have become pronate and vine- 
like, and crowding individuals of non-opposing fami- 
lies of flowering plants fill up the intervals with a car- 
pet pattern of rich colors, might puzzle a painter. It 
reminded me of Humboldt’s covering with his cloak 
the vegetation of four continents. 
This little port of Lievely or G-odhavn is on a gneis- 
soid spur, offsetting from the larger mass of Disco. I 
subjoin the few observations which I was able to 
make on the physical characters of this island. 
Disco is the largest circumpavigable island on the 
coast of Greenland. Its long diameter is from the 
northwest to southeast, and its eastern edge is in a 
continuous line with the coast to the north and south. 
It is rendered insular by a large strait, called the 
Waigat, which inosculates with the bay. 
Its general geognostical structure is determined by 
a great green-stone dike which crosses its entire length, 
and is continued conformably across the Waigat. As 
nearly as I could arrive at it, the general trend of this 
injection was to the E.N.E., which, when afterward 
compared with the northern Labrador and Greenland 
coast, seemed to indicate a correspondence with the 
