Sir Charles Giesecke on Cryolite. 
sidering that no such thing could exist, at this time of the yeai^ 
so near to the sea, I landed, and I found, to my great astonish- 
ment, a bed of Cryolite, the geological situation of which had 
been hitherto so doubtful. 
The islands which lie across or shut up, as it were, the mouth 
of this frith, consist of coarse granular granite. The lofty moun- 
tain Kognehpamiedludd (Engl, the clifted rock with the long 
tail), which rises on the left side of the entrance of the friths, and 
which is a landmark to the navigator, is composed of the same 
granite, but with overlying sienite, the felspar of which is beau- 
tifully labradoric. This granite continues uninterrupted for 
eight miles on both sides of the frith of Arksut, when it disap- 
pears and alternates with gneiss. This gneiss forms the shores 
on both sides of tke frith for from seven to eight miles, to the 
spot called Iviknet by the natives, where the cryolite is foundv 
The name Ivikoet (from iviky grass,) was given to this place by 
the Greenlanders, on account of its peculiar fertility. The place 
was formerly visited by them during the summer season, on ac- 
count of its being a good place for fishing and drying Angmaksat 
i^Salmo arcticus^ Lin., the Lodde of the Norwegians), but it was 
deserted twenty years ago on account of the increasing floating 
ice. Hence it arises, that we owe the first discovery of cryolite 
to the Greenlanders, who, in finding it to be a soft substance, 
employed the water-worn rounded fragments as weights on 
their angling lines. In this shape, the first specimens of cryo- 
lite were sent by the Missionaries as an ethnographical curiosity 
to Copenhagen. It was of course incorrectly stated in some 
periodical papers, that the cryolite was discovered by me ; I only 
found its geological situation, and I dare say by a mere accident. 
The cryolite is found, as I mentioned before, near to the 
shore, resting immediately upon gneiss. This rock, which here 
forms the shore of the frith, is under water during the tide, as 
well as the superincumbent cryolite, and both are very much de- 
composed, where they are in contact with each other. The gneiss 
is metalliferous, and intersected by small horizontal and vertical 
veins of quartz, from the thickness of 1 inch to that of 3 or 4 
inches, containing tinstone, accompanied by arsenical pyrites, 
common iron-pyrites, small particles of wolfram, and lithomarge ; 
the whole bearing a striking resemblance to the tinstone veins 
in Saxony and Bohemia. The tinstone occurs massive and 
