38 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEliGEN. 
this place these beds represent terrestrial conditions, 
there being an entire absence of marine fossils. This 
flora is characterized by numerous ferns, especially 
Gleicheniae; by a remarkable cycad (Zamites archea) ; 
by numerous conifers, belonging 'to the genera Pinus, 
Sequoia, &c.; and by the absence of dicotyledons. 
The upper cretaceous beds are developed between 
Atanekerdluk and Atane. They comprise thick 
strata of coal, and the fossils are terrestrial; the 
marine being absent. The flora comprise cycads, 
ferns in abundance, Sequoia, and numerous dicotyle¬ 
donous leaves. The great bulk of the strata on and 
around Disco Island are of Miocene age. Plants have 
been collected from three distinct horizons represent¬ 
ing periods separated by considerable intervals of 
time. The lowest horizon occurs at Atanekerdluk. 
The beds are remarkably rich in impressions of plants, 
and in carbonized trunks of trees. These trunks are 
in places so abundant that the Greenlanders collect 
them for fuel. The second horizon contains beds of 
coal, and impressions of leaves, cones, seeds, &c., as 
also carbonized and silicified tree-stems at Netlu- 
arsuk, Ifsorisok, and Assakak. At Sinnifik and 
at Perilosok an upper Miocene flora occurs, repre¬ 
sented by fragments belonging to such trees as Salix 
Platanus , Crataegus , Sequoia , Taxiles , and Populus. 
