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GREENLAND (Danish, &c., Gronland)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 548 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

GREENLAND (Danish, &c., Gronland)  , a large See also:continental See also:island, the greater portion of which lies within the See also:Arctic Circle, while the whole is arctic in See also:character . It is not connected with any portion of See also:Europe or See also:America except by suboceanic ridges; but in the extreme See also:north it is separated only by a narrow strait from See also:Ellesmere See also:Land in the See also:archipelago of the See also:American See also:continent . It is bounded on the See also:east by the North See also:Atlantic, the See also:Norwegian and See also:Greenland Seas—See also:Jan See also:Mayen, See also:Iceland, the See also:Faeroe Islands and the Shetlands being the only lands between it and See also:Norway . See also:Denmark Strait is the See also:sea between it and Iceland, and the See also:northern Norwegian Sea or Greenland Sea separates it from See also:Spitsbergen . On the See also:west See also:Davis Strait and See also:Baffin See also:Bay See also:separate . it from Baffin Land . The so-called bay narrows northward into the strait successively known as See also:Smith See also:Sound, See also:Kane See also:Basin, See also:Kennedy Channel and Robeson Channel . A submarine See also:ridge, about 300 fathoms deep at its deepest, unites Greenland with Iceland (across Denmark Strait), the Faeroes and See also:Scotland . A similar submarine ridge unites it with the See also:Cumberland See also:Peninsula of Baffin Land, across Davis Strait . Two large islands (with others smaller) See also:lie.probably off the north See also:coast, being apparently divided from it by very narrow channels which are not yet explored . If they be reckoned as integral parts of Greenland, then the north coast, fronting the polar sea, culminates about 83° 40' N . Cape Farewell, the most southerly point (also on a small island), is in 59° 45' N . The extreme length of Greenland may therefore be set down at about 165o m., while its extreme breadth, which occurs about 77° 30' N., is approximately 800 m .

The See also:

area is estimated at 827,275 sq. m . Greenland is a Danish See also:colony, inasmuch as the west coast and also the See also:southern east coast belong to the Danish See also:crown . The scattered settlements of Europeans on the southern parts of the coasts are Danish, and the See also:trade is a See also:monopoly of the Danish See also:government . The southern and See also:south-western coasts have been known, as will be mentioned later, since the loth See also:century, when Norse settlers appeared there, and the names of many famous arctic explorers have been associated with the exploration of Greenland . The communication between the Norse settlements in Greenland and the motherland Norway was broken off at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, and the Norsemen's knowledge about their distant colony was gradually more or less forgotten . The south and west coast of Greenland was then re-discovered by See also:John Davis in See also:July 1585, though previous explorers, as Cortereal, See also:Frobisher and others, had seen it, and at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century the See also:work of Davis (1586-1588), See also:Hudson (1610) and Baffin (1616) in the western seas afforded some knowledge of the west coast . This was added to by later explorers and by whalers and sealers . Among explorers who in the 19th century were specially connected with the north-west coast may be mentioned E . A . See also:Inglefield (1852) who sailed into Smith's Sound,' See also:Elisha KentKane (18J3-1855)2 who worked northward through Smith Sound into Kane Basin, and See also:Charles See also:Francis See also:Hall (1871) who explored the strait (Kennedy Channel and Robeson Channel) to the north of this.' The northern east coast was sighted by Hudson (1607) in about 73° 30' N . (C . Hold with See also:Hope), and during the 17th century and Inglefield, Summer See also:Search for See also:Franklin (See also:London, 1853) .

2 Second See also:

Grinnell Expedition (2 vols., See also:Philadelphia, 1856) . 3 Davis, Polaris (Hall's) North Polar Expedition (See also:Washington, 1876) . See also Bessels, See also:Die amerikanische Nor-disci-Expedition (See also:Leipzig, 1879).later this northern coast was probably visited by many Dutch whalers . The first who gave more accurate See also:information was the Scottish whaler, See also:Captain See also:William See also:Scoresby, jun . (1822), who, with his See also:father, explored the coast between 69° and 75° N., and gave the first fairly trustworthy See also:map of it.' Captains See also:Edward See also:Sabine and Clavering (1823) visited the coast between 72° 5' and 75° 12' N. and met the only See also:Eskimo ever seen in this See also:part of Greenland . The second See also:German polar expedition in 1870, under Carl See also:Christian Koldewey 5 (1837-1908), reached 77° N . (Cape See also:Bismarck); and the See also:duke of See also:Orleans, in 1905, ascertained that this point was on an island (the See also:Dove Bay of the German expedition being in reality a strait) and penetrated farther north, to about 78° 16' . From this point the north-east coast remained unexplored, though a sight was reported in 167o by a whaler named See also:Lambert, and again in 1775 as far north as 79° by Daines See also:Barrington, until a Danish expedition under Mylius See also:Erichsen in 1906-1908 explored it, discovering North-East See also:Foreland, the easternmost point (see POLAR REGIONS and map) . The southern part of the east coast was first explored by the Dane Wilhelm See also:August Graah (1829-1830) between Cape Farewell and 65° 16' N.6 In 1883-1885 the Danes G . Holm and T . V . Garde carefully explored and mapped the coast from Cape Farewell to Angmagssalik, in 66° N !

F . See also:

Nansen and his companions also travelled along a part of this coast in 1888.3 A . E . See also:Nordenskiold, in the " See also:Sophia," landed near Angmagssalik, in 65° 36' N., in 1883.9 Captain C . See also:Ryder, in 1891-1892, explored and mapped the large Scoresby Sound, or, more correctly, Scoresby Fjord10 See also:Lieutenant G . Amdrup, in 1899, explored the coast from Angmagssalik north to 67° 22' N1' A part of this coast, about 67° N., had also been seen by Nansen in 1882 12 In 1899 See also:Professor A.' G . Nathorst explored the land between See also:Franz Josef See also:Fjord and Scoresby Fjord, where the large See also:King Oscar Fjord, connecting See also:Davy's Sound with Franz See also:Joseph Fjord, was discovered.13 In 1900 Lieutenant Amdrup explored the still unknown east coast from 69° 10' N. south to 67° N" From the work of explorers in the north-west it had been possible to infer the approximate See also:latitude of the northward termination of Greenland See also:long before it was definitely known . Towards the See also:close of the 19th century several explorers gave See also:attention to this question . Lieutenant (afterwards See also:Admiral) L . A . See also:Beaumont (1876), of the See also:Nares Expedition, explored the coast north-east of Robeson Channel to 82° 20' N " In 1882 Lieut . J .

B . See also:

Lockwood and Sergeant (afterwards Captain) D . L . Brainard, of the U.S. expedition to See also:Lady Franklin Bay,15 explored the north-west coast beyond Beaumont's farthest to a promontory in 83° 24' N. and 40° 46' E. and they saw to the north-east Cape Washington, in about 83° 38' N. and 39° 30' E., the most northerly point of land till then observed . In July 1892 R . E . See also:Peary and E . Astrup, See also:crossing by land from Inglefield Gulf, Smith Sound, discovered See also:Independence Bay on the north-east coast in 81° 37' N. and 34° 5' W.17 In May 1895 it ' See also:Journal of a Voyage to the Northern See also:Whale See also:Fishery (1823) . 5 Die zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt (1873–1875) . c Reise til Ostkysten of Gronland (1832; trans. by G . See also:Gordon Macdougall, 1837) . 7 Meddelelser om Gronland, parts ix. and x .

(See also:

Copenhagen, 1888) . 3 The First Crossing of Greenland, vol. i . (London, 1890), H . Mohn and F . Nansen; " Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse von Dr F . Nansen Durchquerung von Gronland " (1888), Erganzungsheft No . Io5 zu Petermanns Mitteilungen (See also:Gotha, 1892) . ' A . F . Nordenskiold, Den andra Dicksonska Expeditionen til Gronland (See also:Stockholm, 1885) . 10 Meddelelser om Gronland, pts. xvii.-xix . (Copenhagen, 1895–1896) .

11 Geografisk Tidskrift, xv . 53-71 (Copenhagen, 1899) . 12 Ibid. vii . 76-79 (Copenhagen, 1884) . " 3 The See also:

Geographical Journal, xiv . 534 (1899) ; xvii . 48 (1900,1 TM Somrar i Norra Ishafvet (Stockholm, 1901) . " Meddelelser om Gronland, parts See also:xxvi.-See also:xxvii . Nares, Voyage to the Polar Sea (2 vols . London, 1877) . See also See also:Blue See also:Book, See also:journals, &c., (Nares) Expedition, 1875–i 876 (London, 1877)- 15 A . W .

Greely, See also:

Report on the Proceedings of the See also:United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnell Land, vols. i. and ii . (Washington, 1885) ; Three Years of Arctic Service (2 vols . London, 1886) . 17 R . E . Peary, Northward over the " See also:Great See also:Ice " (2 vols . New See also:York, 1898) ; E . Astrup, Blandt Nordpolen's Naboer (See also:Christiania, 1895) . was revisited by Peary, who supposed this bay to be a sound communicating with See also:Victoria Inlet on the north-west coast . To the north Heilprin Land and See also:Melville Land were seen stretching northwards, but the See also:probability seemed to be that the coast soon trended north-west . In 1901 Peary rounded the north point, and penetrated as far north as 83° 50' N . .The scanty exploration of 543 from the western margin, in 62° 50' NJ Nordenskiold penetrated in 1883 about 70 M. inland in 68° 20' N., and two Lapps of his expedition went still farther on skis, to a point nearly under 45° W. at an See also:elevation of 6600 ft .

Peary and Maigaard reached in 1886 about See also:

loo m. inland, a height of 7500 ft. in 69° 30' N . Nansen with five companions in 1888 made the first See also:complete crossing of the inland ice, working from the east coast to the west, about 64° 25' N., and reached a height of 8922 ft . Peary and Astrup, as already indicated, crossed in 1892 the northern part of the inland ice between 78° and 82° N., reaching a height of about 8000 ft., and deter-See also:mined the northern termination of the ice-covering . Peary made very nearly the same See also:journey again in 1895 . Captain T . V . Garde explored in 1893 the interior of the inland ice between 61° and 62° N. near its southern termination, and he reached a height of 7080 ft. about 6o m. from the margin.2 t'-' e0 fs4,fs e °tW & e{ . Umivik Cyi/ee-rove Fiord C.Mtistlne I dloluarsuk Ak1 rmnarmiut ctl! ae,dttl . 71ngmIarm ut 'r ya „e,.ere,4,o tkermi,lt Puisorlok C . Anoret k ),MC” C . Kangerd lu suatsiak ~erroo r,o.n lVerer Ilcecasar5uak_ i eih w.r . " Long .

W . 400 at crccu„¢p Coasts.—The coasts of Greenland are for the most part deeply indented with fjords, being in-tensely glaciated . The coast-See also:

line of Melville Bay (the northern part of the west coast) is to some degree an exception, though the fjords may here be somewhat filled with glaciers, and, for another example, it may be noted that Peary observed a marked contrast on the north coast . Eastward as far as Cape See also:Morris See also:Jesup there are precipitous headlands and islands, as elsewhere, with deep See also:water close inshore . East of the same cape there is an abrupt See also:change; the coast is unbroken, the mountains recede inland, and there is shoal-water for a considerable distance from the coast . Numerous islands lie off the coasts where they are indented; but these are in no See also:case large, excepting those off the north coast, and that of Disco off the west, which is crossed by the parallel of 70° N . This island, which is separated by Waigat Strait from the Nugsuak peninsula, is lofty, and has an area of 3005 sq. m . Steenstrup in 1898 discovered in it the warmest See also:spring known in Greenland, having a temperature of 66° F . The unusual glaciation of the east coast is evidently owing to the north polar current carrying the ice masses from the north polar basin south-westward along the land, and giving it an entirely arctic See also:climate down to Cape Farewell . In some parts the interior ice-covering extends down to the See also:outer coast, while in other parts its margin is situated more inland, and the ice-See also:bare coast-land is deeply intersected by fjords extending far into the interior, where they are blocked by enormous glaciers or " ice-currents " from the interior ice-covering which See also:discharge masses of icebergs into them . The east coast of Greenland is in this respect highly interesting . All coasts in the See also:world which are much intersected by deep fjords have, with very few exceptions, a western exposure, e.g .

Norway, Scotland, See also:

British See also:Columbia and See also:Alaska, See also:Patagonia and See also:Chile, and even Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, whose west coasts are far more indented than their east ones . Greenland forms the most prominent exception, GREENLAND its eastern coast being quite as much indented as its western . The See also:reason is to be found in its geo- graphical position, a See also:cold ice-covered polar current See also:running south along the land, while not far out- See also:side there is an open warmer sea, a circumstance which, while producing a cold climate, must also give rise to much precipitation, the land being thus exposed to the alternate erosion of a rough rm.,,Y q, .. « See also:atmosphere and large glaciers . On the east coast of Baffin Land and Labrador there are similar conditions . The result is that the east .coast of Greenland has the largest See also:system of typical fjords known on the See also:earth's See also:surface . Scoresby Fjord has a length of about 18o m. from the outer coast to the point where it is blocked by the glaciers, and with its numerous branches covers an enormous area . Franz Josef Fjord, with its See also:branch King Oscar Fjord, com- municating with Davy's Sound, forms a system of fjords on a similar See also:scale . These fjords are very deep; the greatest See also:depth Meddelelser om Gronland, part i . (Copenhagen, 1879) . 2 Ibid. part xvi . (Copenhagen, 1896) .

5 See also:

English See also:Miles V . , . So wo r5o zoo a$o goo Glaciers Capitals of Inspectorates 0 1 . 3o C 6 the great ice-cap, or inland ice, which may be asserted to See also:cover the whole of the interior of Greenland, has been prosecuted chiefly from the west coast . In 1751 Lars Dalager, a Danish trader, took some steps in this direction from Frederikshaab . In 1870 Nordenskiold and Berggren walked 35 M. inland from the See also:head of Aulatsivik Fjord (near Disco Bay) to an elevation of 2200 ft . The Danish captain Jens See also:Arnold See also:Dietrich See also:Jensen reached, in 1878, the Jensen Nunataks (J400 ft. above the sea), about 45 M . found by Ryder in Scoresby Sound was 300 fathoms, but there are certainly still greater depths; like the Norwegian fjords they have, however, probably all of them, a See also:threshold or See also:sill, with shallow water, near their mouths . A few soundings made outside this coast seem to indicate that the fjords continue as deep submarine valleys far out into the sea . On the west coast there are also many great fjords . One of the best known from earlier days is the great Godthaab Fjord (or Baals Revier) north of 64° N . Along the east coast there are many high mountains, exceeding 6000 and 7000 ft. in height .

One of the highest peaks hitherto measured is at Tiningnertok, on the Lindenov Fjord, in 6o° 35' N., which is 7340 ft. high . At the bottom of Mogens Heinesen Fjord, 62° 30' N., the peaks are 6300 ft., and in the region of Umanak, 63° N., they even exceed 6600 ft . At Urnivik, where Nansen began his journey across the inland ice, the highest See also:

peak projecting through the ice-covering was Gamel's See also:Nunatak, 6440 ft., in 64° 34' N . In the region of Angmagssalik, which is very mountainous, the mountains rise to 6500 ft., the most prominent peak being Ingolf's Fjeld, in 66° 20' N., about 6000 ft., which is seen from far out at sea, and forms an excellent landmark . This is probably the Blaaserk (i.e . Blue See also:Sark or blue See also:shirt) of the old Norsemen, their first landmark on their way from Iceland to the Oster Bygd, the See also:present Julianehaab See also:district, on the south-west coast of Greenland . A little farther north the coast is much See also:lower, rising only to heights of 2000 ft., and just north of 67° To' N. only to 500 ft. or less.' The highest mountains near the inner branches of Scoresby Fjord are about 7000 ft . The Peterrnann Spitze, near the See also:shore of Franz Josef Fjord, measured by Payer and found to be 11,000 ft., has hitherto been considered to be the highest See also:mountain in Greenland, but according to Nathorst it " is probably only two-thirds as high as Payer supposed," perhaps between 8000 and 9000.ft . Along the west coast of Greenland the mountains are generally not quite so high, but even here peaks of 5000 and 6000 ft. are not uncommon . As a whole the coasts are unusually mountainous, and Greenland forms in this respect an interesting exception, as there is no other known land of such a See also:size so filled along its coasts on all sides with high mountains and deep fjords and valleys . The Inland Ice.—The whole interior of Greenland is completely covered by the so-called inland ice, an enormous See also:glacier forming a See also:regular See also:shield-shaped expanse of See also:snow and glacier ice, and burying all valleys and mountains far below its surface . Its area is about 715,400 sq .

M., and it is by far the greatest glacier of the northern hemisphere . Only occasionally there emerge lofty rocks, isolated but not completely covered by the ice-cap; such rocks are known as nunataks (an Eskimo word) . The inland ice rises in the interior to a level of 9000, and in places perhaps 10,000 ft. or more, and descends gradually by extremely See also:

gentle slopes towards the coasts or the bottom of the fjords on all sides, discharging a great part of its yearly drainage or surplus of precipitation in the See also:form of icebergs in the fjords, the so-called ice-fjords, which are numerous both on the west and on the east coast . These icebergs See also:float away, and are gradually melted in the sea, the temperature of which is thus lowered by cold stored up in the interior of Greenland . The last remains of these icebergs are met with in the Atlantic south of See also:Newfoundland . The surface of the inland ice forms in a transverse See also:section from the west to the east coast an extremely regular See also:curve, almost approaching an arc of a wide circle, which along Nansen's route has its highest ridge somewhat nearer the east than the west coast . The same also seems to be the case farther south . The curve shows, however, slight irregularities in the shape of undulations . The See also:angle of the slope decreases gradually from the margin of the inland ice, where it may be I° or more, towards the interior, where it is o° . In the interior the surface of the inland ice is composed of dry snow which never melts, and is constantly packed and worked smooth by the winds . It extends as a completely even See also:plain of snow, with long, almost imperceptible, undulations or waves, at a height of 7000 to 10,000 ft., obliterating the features of the underlying land, the mountains and valleys of which are completely interred . Over the deepest valleys of the land in the interior this ice-cap must be at least 6000 or 7000 ft. thick or more .

Approaching the coasts from the interior, the snow of the surface gradually changes its structure . At first it becomes more coarse-grained, like the Firn Schnee of the See also:

Alps, and is moist by melting during the summer . Nearer the coast, where the melting on the surface is more considerable, the wet snow freezes hard during the See also:winter and is more or less transformed into ice, on the surface of which See also:rivers and lakes are formed, the water of which, however, soon finds its way through crevasses and holes in the ice down to its under surface, and reaches the sea as a sub-glacial See also:river . Near its margin the surface of the inland ice is broken up by numerous large crevasses, formed by the outward See also:motion of the glacier covering the underlying land . The steep ice-, walls at the margin of the inland ice show, especially where the motion of the ice is slow, a distinct striation, which indicates the strata of See also:annual precipitation with the intervening thin seams of dust (NordenskiOld's kryokonite) . This is partly dust blown on ' See C . Kruuse in Geografisk Tidskrift, xv . 64 (Copenhagen, 1899) . See also F . Nansen, " Die Ostkiiste Gronlands," Erganzungsheft No . I05 zu See also:Petermann Mitteilungen (Gotha, 1892), p . 55 and pl. iv., See also:sketch No. i I.to the surface of the ice from the ice-bare coast-land and partly the dust of the atmosphere brought down by the falling snow and accumulated on the surface of the glacier's covering by the melting during the summer .

In the rapidly moving glaciers of the ice-fjords this striation is not distinctly visible, being evidently obliterated by the strong motion of the ice masses . The ice-cap of Greenland must to some extent be considered as a viscous See also:

mass, which, by the See also:vertical pressure in its interior, is pressed outwards and slowly flows towards the coasts, just as a mass of See also:pitch placed on a table and See also:left to itself will in the course of See also:time flow outwards towards all sides . The motion of the outwards-creeping inland ice will naturally be more See also:independent of the See also:con-figurations of the underlying land in the interior, where its thickness is so enormous, than near the margin where it is thinner . Here the ice converges into the valleys and moves with increasing velocity in the form of glaciers into the fjords, where they break off as ice-bergs . The drainage of the interior of Greenland is thus partly given off in the solid form of icebergs, partly by the melting of the snow and ice on the surface of the ice-cap, especially near its western margin, and to some slight extent also by the melting produced on its under side by the interior See also:heat of the earth . After Professor Amund Helland had, in July 1875, discovered the amazingly great velocity, up to 64; ft. in twenty-four See also:hours, with which the glaciers of Greenland move into the sea, the margin of the inland ice and its glaciers was studied by several expeditions . K . J . V . Steenstrup during several years, Captain See also:Hammer in 1879-188o, Captain Ryder in 1886–1887, Dr Drygalski in 1891–1893,2 and several American expeditions In later years, all examined the question closely . The highest known velocities of glaciers were measured by Ryder in the Upernivik glacier (in 73° N.), where, between the 13th and 14th of August of 1886, he found a velocity of 125 ft. in twenty-four hours, and an See also:average velocity during several days of See also:lot ft . (Danish).° It was, however, ascertained that there is a great difference between the velocities of the glaciers in winter and in summer .

For instance, Ryder found that the Upernivik glacier had an average velocity of only 33 ft. in See also:

April 1887 . There seem to be periodical oscillations in the See also:extension of the glaciers and the inland ice similar to those that have been observed on the glaciers of the Alps and elsewhere . But these interesting phenomena have not hitherto been subject to systematic observation, and our knowledge of them is therefore uncertain . Numerous glacial marks, however, such as polished striated rocks, moraines, erratic blocks, &c., prove that the whole of Greenland, even the small islands and skerries outside the coast, has once been covered by the inland ice . Numerous raised beaches and terraces, containing shells of marine See also:mollusca, &c., occur along the whole coast of Greenland, and indicate that the whole of this large island has been raised, or the sea has sunk, in See also:post-glacial times, after the inland ice covered its now ice-bare outskirts . In the north along the shores of Smith Sound these traces of the See also:gradual upheaval of the land, or sinking of the sea, are very marked; but they are also very distinct in the south, although not found so high above sea-level, which seems to show that the upheaval has been greater in the north . In Uvkusigsat Fjord (72 ° 20' N.) the highest See also:terrace is 48o ft. above the sea.4 On Manitsok (65° 30' N.) the highest raised See also:beach was 36o ft. above the sea.b In the Isortok Fjord (67° II' N.) the highest raised beach is 38o ft. above sea-level$ In the Ameralik Fjord (64° 14' N.) the highest marine terrace is about 340 ft. above sea-level, and at Ilivertalik (63° 14' N.), north of Fiskernaes, the highest terrace is about 325 ft. above the sea . At Kakarsuak, near the Bjornesund (62° 50' N.), a terrace is found at 615 ft. above the sea, but it is doubtful whether this is of marine origin ? In the Julianehaab district, between 60° and 61° N., the highest marine terraces are found at about 16o ft. above the sea .° The highest marine terrace observed in Scoresby Fjord, on the east coast, was 240 ft. above sea level.° There is a See also:common belief that during quite See also:recent times the west and south-west coast, within the Danish possessions, has been sinking . Al-though there are many indications which may make this probable, none of them can be said to be quite decisive.10 [See also:Geology.—So far as made out, the structure of explored Greenland is as follows: i . Laurentian See also:gneiss forms the greatest mass of the exposed rocks of the See also:country bare of ice . They are found on both sides of Smith Sound, rising to heights of 2000 ft., and underlie the See also:Miocene and Cretaceous rocks of Disco Island, Noursoak Peninsula and the 2E. v .

Drygalski, Gronland-Expedition der Gesellschaft See also:

fur Erdkunde zu See also:Berlin, 1891–1893 (2 vols., Berlin, 1897) . Meddelelser om Gronland, part viii. pp . 203-270 (Copenhagen, 1889) . 4 Ibid., part iv. p . 230 (Copenhagen, 1883) ; see also part xiv. pp . 317 et se q., ° Ibid. part xiv. p . 323 (Copenhagen, 1898) . ° Ibid. part ii. pp . 181-188 (Copenhagen, 1881) . 7 Ibid. part i. pp . 99-101 (Copenhagen, 1879) . °Ibid. part ii. p .

39 (Copenhagen, 1881); part xvi. pp . 150-154 (1896) . ° Ibid., part xix. p . 175 (1896) . 10 Ibid. part i. p . 34; part ii. p . 40; part xiv. pp . 343-347; part iv. p . 237 ; part viii. p . 26 . Oolites of Pendulum Island in East Greenland . See also:

Ancient See also:schists occur on the east coast south of Angmagssalik, and basalts and schists are found in Scoresby Fjord .

It is possible that some of these rocks are also of Huronian See also:

age, but it is doubtful whether the rocks so designated by the geologists of the " Alert " and " See also:Discovery " expedition are really the rocks so known in See also:Canada, or are a continuous portion of the fundamental or See also:oldest gneiss of the north-west of Scotland and the western isles . 2 . See also:Silurian.—Upper Silurian, having a strong relation to the See also:Wenlock See also:group of See also:Britain, but with an American facies, and Lower Silurian, with a See also:succession much the same as in British North America, are found on the shores of Smith Sound, and Nathorst has discovered them in King Oscar Fjord, but not as yet so far south as the Danish possessions . 3 . Devonian rocks are believed to occur in «Igaliko and Tunnudiorbik Fjords, in S.W . Greenland, but as they are unfossiliferous See also:sandstone, rapidly disintegrating, this cannot be known . It is, however, likely that this formation occurs in Greenland, for in See also:Dana Bay, Captain Feilden found a See also:species of Spirifera and Productus mesolobus or costatus, though it is possible that these fossils represent the " Ursa See also:stage " (Heer) of the Lower Carboniferous . A few Devonian forms have also been recorded from the See also:Parry Archipelago, and Nathorst has shown the existence of Old Red Sandstone facies of Devonian in See also:Traill Island, Geographical Society Island, Ymer Island and See also:Gauss Peninsula . 4 . Carboniferous.—In erratic blocks of sandstone, found on the Disco shore of the Waigat have been detected a Sigillaria and a species of either Pecopteris'or Gleichenia, perhaps of this age; and probably much of the extreme northern coast of Ellesmere Land, and therefore, in all likelihood, the opposite Greenland shore, contains a clearly See also:developed Carboniferous See also:Limestone See also:fauna, identical with that so widely distributed over the North American continent, and referable also to British and Spitsbergen species . Of the See also:Coal See also:Measures above these, if they occur, we know nothing at present . Capt .

Feilden notes as suggestive that, though the explorers have not met with this formation on the northern shores of Greenland, yet it was observed that a continuation of the direction of the known strike of the limestones of Feilden peninsula, carried over the polar area, passes through the neighbourhood of Spitsbergen, where the formation occurs, and contains certain species identical with those of the Grinnell Land rocks of this See also:

horizon . The facies of the fossils is, according to Mr See also:Etheridge, North American and See also:Canadian, though many of the species are British . The See also:corals are few in number, but the See also:Molluscoida (See also:Polyzoa) are more numerous in species and individuals . No Secondary rocks have been discovered in the extreme northern parts of West Greenland, but they are present on the east and west coasts in more southerly latitudes than Smith Sound . 5 . See also:Jurassic.—These do not occur on the west coast, but on the east coast the German expedition discovered marls and sandstones on See also:Kuhn Island, resembling those of the See also:Russian Jurassic, characterized by the presence of the genus Aucella, Olcostephanus Payeri, O. striolaris, Belemnites Panderianus, B. volgensis, B. absolutus, and a Cyprina near to C. syssolae . On the south coast of the same island are coarse-grained, brownish micaceous and See also:light-coloured calcareous sandstone and marls, containing fossils, which render it probable that they are of the same age as the coal-bearing Jurassic rocks of Brora (Scotland) and the See also:Middle Dogger of See also:Yorkshire . There is also coal on Kuhn Island . The Danish expeditions of 1899-1900 have added considerably to our knowledge of the Jurassic rocks of East Greenland . See also:Rhaetic-See also:Lias See also:plants have been described by Dr Hartz from Cape See also:Stewart and Vardekloft . Dr Madsen has recognized fossils that correspond with those from the Inferior oolite, See also:Cornbrash and See also:Callovian of See also:England . Upper Kimmeridge and See also: