Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/942

 later the whole of it was so submerged that only the ruins rose above the water. The settlement of Julianeshaab was founded in 1776 in the same fjord ; but the foundations of the old storehouse, built on an island called " The Castle," are now dry only at very low water. Again, the remains of native houses are seen under water near the colony of Fredrikshaab (lat. 62° N.). Near the great glacier which projects into the sea between Fredrikshaab and Fiskernsesset, in 62° 32' N., there is a group of islands called Fulluarlalik, on the shores of which are the ruins of dwellings which are now overflowed by the tide. In 1758 the Moravian Unitas Fratrum founded the mission-establishment of Lichtenfeld, about two miles from Fiskernaesset (lat. 63° 4') ; but in thirty or forty years they were obliged once, " perhaps twice," to remove the frames or posts on which they rested their large omiaks or " womens " (seal- skin) " boats." The posts may yet be seen beneath the water.

To the north-east of Godhaab (lat. 64° 10' 36" N., long. 51° 45' 5" W. 1 ), on a point called Vildmansnaes (Savage Point) by Hans Egede, in 1721-36, several Greenland families lived. These dwellings are now desolate, being overflowed at high tide. At Nappersoak, forty-five miles north of Sukkertoppen (lat. 65° 25' 23" N., long. 52° 45' 25" W.), the ruins of old Greenland houses are also to be seen at low water.

In Disco Bay I had another curious instance brought under my attention by Hr. Neilssen, Colonibestyrer of Claushavn. The blubber-boiling house of that post was originally built on a little rocky islet, about one-eighth of a mile from the shore, called by the Danes " Speck-Huse-Oe," and by the Eskimo, " Krowelenwak," which just means the same thing, viz. " Blubber-house Island." For many years the island had been gradually sinking, until, in 1867, the year of our visit, Hr. Neilssen had been under the necessity of removing the house from it, as the island had been gradually subsiding until the floor of the house was flooded at high tide, though, it is needless to say, sufficiently far above high-water mark when originally built. On another island in its vicinity the whole of the Claushavn natives used to encamp in the summer, for the treble purpose of drying seals' flesh for winter use, of getting free from disturbance by the dogs, and of getting somewhat relieved from the plague of mosquitoes ; but now the island is so circumscribed that the natives do not encamp there, the space above water not allowing of room for more than three or four skin tents. These facts are sufficient evidence that the coast of Greenland is falling at the present time ; and I doubt not that if there were observers stationed in Smith's Sound for a sufficiently long time, it would be found that the coast is also falling there, though hitherto only Kane and Hayes have stayed there, but for too short a period to decide on the matter ; and I cannot see that there is the slightest reason why the fall should halt at Kingatok (N. lat. 73° 43'),

1 According to observations by Capt. v. Falbe, of the Royal Danish Navy, furnished to me by Capt. H. L. M. Holm, of the Hydrographic Department, Copenhagen.