Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/399

Rh Where we reached the shore, the horizontal bedded basalt cliffs rose frowning overhead to a height of a thousand feet; they are much seriated on their upper edge by the action of water and weather, and though, when viewed from a distance, the cliffs appear to be mural, on a closer acquaintance it is seen that they are fretted into most fantastic shapes; pillars, needles, and blocks of trap stand out in relief against the cliffs. A talus with a very steep slope extends from the beach to a height of about three hundred feet. This talus is removed between low- and high-water marks by the sea; but on this cleared space many large ice-transported erratics were strewn. The two Greenlanders who accompanied us, one of whom had informed Mr. Krärup Smith that in the preceding year he had observed an "iron-stone" similar in appearance to those taken away by the Swedes, led me to the spot: the waves were breaking somewhat; but I satisfied myself that no iron-masses were lying amongst the boulders for some yards to seaward.* Considerable interest has been excited both in England and the Continent as to the origin of these iron-masses of Uivfak, whether they be meteoric or telluric. Without presuming to hazard any decided opinion on the subject, it may be well to mention that, even with an ordinary lens pieces of basalt, apparently similar to the rock of Uivfak, are to be detected in the body of these lumps of iron : this militates against the argument of their meteoric origin. The re-occurrence of pieces of iron-stone at the same place makes it more than probable that the matrix of the iron is in the cliffs overhead.

On our return journey to Godhavn we landed at Laxebught, where there is a considerable indentation on the coast. Between the cliffs and the bay stretches an extent of flat land, which reaches to the head of the bay. The present sea-level is some twenty feet below this border of old sea-shore. A considerable stream, formed by the melting of the snow on the uplands, empties into Laxebught, near its western extremity ; rounded boulders of gneiss are abundant in the bed of the stream. As boulders of gneiss are likewise scattered over the flat land surrounding the bay, and were probably floated there on ice when the land lay below the present sea-level, I walked up to the spot where the torrent debouches from the cliffs, and con-

In the following year, 1876, Mr. Krärup Smith obtained a large mass of native iron from this same spot, and several smaller pieces : they were picked up at the water's edge.