456 PROFESSOR HEER ON THE FOSSIL FLORA OF NORTH GREENLAND. 
aU the stems is not constant, and more difficult to satisfy oneself regarding than might 
he supposed. At all events there is no doubt they lie horizontally. Coal is, according 
to my observations, invariably all around the stems, and the shales do not come in 
contact with them. I would also beg of you to notice there is no ‘ dirt bed ’ inferiorly — 
strong presumptive evidence (I venture to think) that under whatever condition the 
plants to which the leaves, &c. belong grew (and there can be no doubt but that they 
were never water-floated), the stems grew not in situ , but were probably floated there in 
much the same way as the drift wood is now, and accumulates in great mass in certain 
places about Disco Bay and other portions of the Arctic regions*. I pray you, however, 
to look upon this as merely a theory , not a fact , and as such only do I state it, with 
every respect for your opinion, to which I wish entirely to yield. 
“ 7. Shales, 18 inches. 
“ 8. Sandstone with leaves, &c. (as per specimen), 3 feet. 
“ 9. Small seam of soft shale. 
“ 10. One foot of coal. 
“11. 4 feet of shales, soft and splintery. 
“ 12. 1 foot of coal. 
“ 13. 3 feet soft splintery brownish shales. 
14. Whitish sandstone, gritty 1 ? 
“15. Alluvial soil with recent vegetation. 
Rough sketch showing position of stems in coal at Kudliset. 
“ Close to this place I found the face of a bare slope scattered with fragments of fossil 
wood, twigs, and portions of stems out of strata.” 
If we take a general view of the geological relations of this part of Greenland, as 
described in the foregoing extracts, we find that on both sides of the Waigat the crys- 
talline rocks are covered by a succession of Miocene deposits pierced by volcanic rocks 
* It may be so, but as no marine miocene animals and plants were found either at Disco or at Atanekerdluk, 
it is more probable that the fossil stems were drifted by a river, and that the lignites of the brown coal issued 
from trees of the moors, in which they sank. At present times this occurs frequently on the moors. The fact 
that they are lying in every direction and enveloped by coal accounts for it. — Oswald Heeb. 
