Abstract
II.
Cryolite of West Greenland Coast.—At Evigtok (ivik, Eng. grass), twelve miles from Arksut (Eng. leeward), in 61° 13′ lat. and 48° 9′ W. long., the mountains rise to a height of more than 2,000 feet, enclosing a sort of basin, with an area of more than a square mile, the bottom of which is covered with grass and Salix arctica, four feet in height, and other plants. This is much frequented in summer by the Greenlanders, who catch large numbers of capelins and cod, which frequent the coast in shoals, as well as the Sahno arcturus, Linn, (the Lodd?é of the Norwegians). Weights used in this fishery, taken by Danish missionaries to Copenhagen at the beginning of the century, were found to be composed of cryolite, which led to the discovery of two veins of that mineral in the gneiss at the head of the bay, which has since been worked by Mr. Tayler, F.G.S. The white cryolite bed is about eighty feet in width, dipping south with the planes of the gneiss in which it occurs. Near its higher portion there is a large quantity of galena, worked in 1854, which gave 82 per cent, of argentiferous lead, containing forty-five ounces of silver to the ton of ore. Fifteen feet from the surface the cryolite was of a dark colour, so that it is probable that the black cryolite in the higher vein is merely less decomposed, and not bleached. The Green-landers value the white variety most, which they call orksoksiksæt (orsok, blubber), from its soft greasy appearance and feel; they gradually pound tobacco leaves placed between two pieces of it, the resultant powder consisting of half of cryolite dust, which they consider superior to any European snuff.†
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DE RANCE, C. Arctic Geology * . Nature 11, 467–469 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/011467c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/011467c0