Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/448

432 mossy valleys, bright with running streams and waterfalls during the brief arctic summer. Everywhere are indubitable signs that the extensive mer de glace, which is believed to cover the whole interior of Greenland, once covered at least the greater part of what is now the uncovered or "fast-land" of the Danes. The ice is again beginning to encroach on the land, and everywhere in this vicinity there are proofs of a gradual subsidence of the ground.

From the fossil remains of numerous land-plants and a few insects found in the Miocene beds of Disco Island, it appears that in comparatively recent times a luxuriant vegetation, somewhat similar in character to that of California or the Southern United States, flourished in these arctic wastes. Luxuriant evergreen-oaks, magnolias, and sequoias, grew where now is found only the dwarf-willow, creeping along the ground with a stem not over half an inch in diameter. Among the fossil trees of Greenland, Prof. Heer has discovered three distinct species of sequoia, nine of oak, four of which were evergreen, like the Italian oak, two beeches, a chestnut, two planes, and a walnut. "Besides these," writes Prof. Heer, "American species, such as the magnolias, sassafrasses, and liquidambars, were represented there; and the characters of the ebony-tree are to be distinguished in two of the species. The hazel, the sumach, the buckthorn, and the holly, the guelder-rose, and the white, probably formed the thickets at the borders of the woods; while the vine, the ivy, and the sarsaparilla, climbed over the trees of the virgin forest, and adorned them with garlands. In the shadow of the wood grew a profusion of ferns, which covered the soil with their elegant fronds. The insects which gave animation to these solitudes are not all lost. The impressions of these which have reached us show that Chrysomelas and Castilldæ enjoyed themselves in the sun, and large Trogsitæ pierced the bark of the trees, while charming Cicadellæ leaped about among the herbage." In all, about 167 species of Miocene plants have been discovered in Greenland.

The coal found on Disco Island is, like all tertiary lignites, of poor quality, but yet, when mixed with English coal, it forms a good fuel for household and even for steaming purposes. It is mined to a small extent for the use of the settlements around the bay. Soapstone is found in some places in the primitive rocks, on the southern shores of Disco Bay; it was at one time extensively employed by the Esquimaux for making various domestic utensils, but is now much less used, owing to the introduction of vessels of iron, copper, and tin. There is no other economic mineral, cryolite being only found in one locality, Arsut Fiord, in South Greenland.

In the winter the cold is extreme in the region of Disco Bay, and the ground is generally thickly covered with snow from September till May or early June. During this period the whole sea is covered with ice, and the Danes and Esquimaux visit from settlement to