19. Torngarsuk, an island thirty-two miles to the south of the colony.

20. Kangarsuk, a cape of the continent of Greenland.

21. Narksalik, twenty-eight miles southward from the colony; and,

22. Sioramint, eight miles to the north of the colony. The population of this district comprehends 552 natives, viz. 234 males and 318 females.

III. FISKER-NER District extends from 62° 52′ to 631°.

23. The inhabitants of the district Fiskernær have their houses at the settlement of the Moravian Brethren, called Lichtenfeld. Their number is 280, viz. 112 males and 168 females.

IV.—GODT-HAAB.-The district of the colony Godt-haab begins at 6310, and reaches to 64° 52'.

The following places are inhabited:

24. Kariat, eight miles southward from the colony.

25. New-Sterrn-Hut, a Moravian settlement, situated between the firths of Ameraglik and Baals River.

26. Godt-haab, the Danish colony in Baals River, and 27. Sarlok, to the north-east of Baals River.-The popula tion of this district amounts to 489 natives, viz. 186 belonging to the Danish mission, and 303 belonging to the Moravian mission. The former consists of 81 males and 105 females, the latter of 123 males and 180 females.

V. SUKKER-TOP. The district of Sukker-top (sugar-loaf) begins at 64° 52′ and ends at 66° 17.

In this district the following places are inhabited by natives:
Towards the south of the colony,

28. Nappasok, an island situated forty miles southward from the colony.

29. The colony Sukker-top itself, called Manetsok by the natives; and

30. Akpamiut, sixteen miles northward from the colony. The population of this district is 304; viz. 143 males and 161 females.

VI. HOLSTEINSBURG District, is the last in South Greenland. 31. The district of Holsteinsburg begins at 66° 16′ and ends with 67° 45'. The natives being employed in the whalefishery, have all their winter-houses round the colony. The number of the inhabitants of this district is 196, viz. 87 males and 109 females. Thus the whole population of South Greenland, the limits of which are fixed to the Strom Frith in 68°, comprehends a number of 3588 souls.

North Greenland commences in latitude 67° 43', hends the following districts:

and compre

1. Egedes-mindes district, extending from 67° 43′ to 68°

The population of North Greenland is not entirely ascertained, but it does not exceed the number of 3000 souls. The country from 67 to 69° is uninhabited. The first district of North Greenland is that of the colony Egedes-minde. The natives belonging to this and the other districts situated round DiskoBay, or Fish-Bay, have their houses at the colonies, for the sake of the whale-fishery.

The Greenlanders of Omenak district are the only natives of the whole coast who live during winter in the interior of that extensive firth, having their supply in catching the seals, by means of nets which are set under the ice.

The most northern district is that of Upernavik; it begins at 72°, and reaches to the remotest north; but it is only inhabited to the 73°. Southwards from Uppernavik is situated

Kangersoietsiak, an island inhabited by natives.

At Upernavik, four or five Greenland families have their abode.

At Tessiursak, an island in 74° 15', eighty miles northward from Upernavik, one family terminates the population of this forlorn country.

ART. XXIII-Narrative of an Excursion upon the Island of Jan Mayen; containing some Account of its Appearance and Productions. By WILLIAM SCORESBY junior, F.R.S. Edin. and M.W.S. Communicated by the Author*.

JAN MAYEN received its name from that of its discoverer, who visited this island, according to the Dutch authorities, in the year 1611*; but as their whale-fishery did not commence until 1612, it is probable that it was not discovered until after that period. It is situated in the Greenland Sea, in latitude 70° 49′ to 71° 8′ 20′′ N. and longitude 7° 25′ 48′′ to 8° 44′ W.

On approaching Jan Mayen, the first object which strikes the attention, when the atmosphere is clear, is Beerenbergt. This mountain rears its icy summit to the height of 6870 feet above the level of the sea, and frequently appears above the clouds. It is scated on a base which is of itself mountainous. The general appearance of the land strikingly resembles that of the coast of Spitzbergen, both in colour and character. As at Spitzbergen, your approach to it seems amazingly tardy. At the distance of ten or fifteen miles, a stranger would suppose himself within half a league of the rocks. This deception arises partly from the great elevation of the sea-coast, and partly from the strong contrast of light and shade, produced by the blackness of the rocks and the whiteness of the snow, with which the land is in a great measure covered. At this time (August the 4th), all the high lands were covered with snow and ice; and the low lands, in those deep cavities where large beds of snow had been collected, still retained part of their winter covering, down to the very margin of the sea.

Between the Capes North-east and South-east, three reinarkable icebergs appear. They occupy three hollows in the cliff, which is almost perpendicular, extending from the base of Beerenberg to the water's edge. Their perpendicular height, ascertained geometrically, appeared to be about 1284 feet. These

This paper was read before the Wernerian Natural History Society on the 6th of December 1817.

Beschryving der Walvisvangst, du!. îîì. bl. 62.

Mountain of Bears.

icebergs differed in appearance from any thing of the kind I had before seen. They appeared rough on the surface, were of a greenish-grey colour, and presented altogether the appearance of immense cataracts, which seemed as if, when in the act of tumbling from the summit of the mountainous coast, they had been suddenly arrested in their progress, and congealed on the spot by the power of an intense frost. Like cataracts, their prominent colour was variegated by snow-white patches resembling foam; they seemed to follow in a great measure the figure of the rocks over which they lay, and were marked with curvilinear striæ, running from the summit to the foot of the icebergs. As in cataracts, also, the jetty points of the most prominent rocks were here and there seen peeping through their surfaces.

I left my ship (the Esk) at three quarters past 1 in the morning, accompanied by Captains Bennet and Jackson, whose ships were close by us at the time, and landed at half-past 2, on a beach covered with coarse greenish-black sand, whereon there was a considerable surf. This was the first place from North-east Cape, four leagues distant, where the coast seemed, at a distance, to be at all accessible. Great-wood-bay, of the Dutch, was immediately on our left (to the westward), separated by a rocky islet; on our right, South-east Cape was at the distance of five miles. The beach was sandy through an extent of two or three miles in length, and about a furlong in breadth. It was strewed throughout with logs of drift wood, some of which seemed to be tolerably good timber, others were much bruised, and a little worm-eaten. One log I observed had been squared, and was marked with the letter G.

I had not advanced many paces before I observed signs of a volcano. The sand (iron-sand) was coarse, black, or reddish-brown, mixed with greenish-coloured crystals of augite. The opaque parts of this sand were very ponderous and strongly magnetic. When separated by the magnet, they strikingly resembled cannon gunpowder, both in colour and in the form of the grains. The beach, after a few feet of rise, produced by a vast bed of this sand, which was thrown up apparently by the waves, continued level to the margin of the cliff, which was in this place at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, but seemed only occasionally to have

been covered by the sea to that extent. Coarse pebbles, and afterwards large masses of lava, were seen at a little distance from the sea; blocks of burnt clay, and large masses of red clay, partly baked, but still in a friable state, occurred about the base and sides of the cliff; and numerous pointed or angular rocks of the floetz-trap formation, in the form of hillocks, were seen projecting through the sand. These rocks, when broken, appeared of a bluish-grey, or blackish-grey colour. Some of the most compact contained numerous greenish crystals of augite imbedded in them; others, which were porous, but very hard, contained fewer and smaller crystals than the former. This latter seems to me to be the same kind of rock as the celebrated German millstone rock.

After leaving the sea shore, where a few common pebbles, such as quartz, porphyry, indurated clay of various colours, gravel, sand, and other alluvial substances, together with the floetz-trap rocks, were seen, I perceived no other minerals but such as bore indubitable marks of recent volcanic action*. Seeing a steep and peculiar looking mount close by, from which the profusion of cinders, earth-slag, burnt clay, scoriæ, &c. around us, seemed to have been projected, we hastened to climb its loose and rugged sides. The steepness of the hill, and the looseness of the materials of which its surface was composed, made this ascent a most fatiguing undertaking. We sometimes slid backwards several paces, by reason of the nodules of lava rolling away from under our feet. We met with no minerals in our progress but those of the class of lavas, which in many places rung beneath our steps like a number of empty metallic vessels.

About the base of the volcanic mount, we met with vast blocks of a ponderous rock, of a bluish-black colour, containing numerous green-coloured crystalline or vitreous substances (the olivine of mineralogists); about the middle, scoriæ, cinders, and earth-slag, having altogether a brownish-black appearance, together with large lumps of burnt clay, lay in great abundance; towards the top, masses of half-baked red clay of a friable texture, containing semivitrified and crystallized substances, occurred; and

I have been informed that an active volcano has been seen in this island within the last fifty years.