pared with the great masses which descend to the sea along every important valley in Greenland.1 This suggests the question, which will be discussed in a later chapter, viz., how far is the sculpture of Greenland and other Arctic regions due to the action of ice ? For if the latter has modified, rather than determined, the physical structure of the country, there must have been a time when Greenland was comparatively, if not wholly, free from snow and glaciers. At the present time, however, it affords a picture of a land where the Glacial Epoch is dominant, though perhaps even here the ice-tide is ebbing. Let us glance first at the southern half of the region, and take as an example that part of the western coast which is south of latitude 71°. In geographical position it corresponds roughly with the portion of Scandinavia which lies between the North Cape and Bergen. The comparison, however, may be pressed further. Such as Greenland is now, Norway has been; the former, if the great ice-sheet which now masks its interior were reduced to a few isolated glaciers, would probably present a very close resemblance to the latter. Norway also is pierced with fjords; it is fringed with islands; 2 it is a region of

1 The total glacier surface (ice and snow) of the Alps is estimated at from 1158 to 1544 square miles. That of the Justedal in Norway is alone about 347 square miles, being larger than any single region in Switzerland, and the ice-covered area of Greenland is not less than 320,475 miles. Alpine Jour., xii. 226.

2 These are frequent, though perhaps less numerous on the Greenland coast; the resemblance might be more complete if Norway were upraised two or three hundred feet.

huge fells and of bold rocky hills; their craggy flanks descend steeply to the coast, their cliffs often overshade the quiet recesses of the fjords; even the very islands are hilly. The same appears to be true of Greenland. The land rises rapidly from the water's edge to a height of from two to four thousand feet; for a considerable distance inland the continuity of the ice is often interrupted by projecting masses of rock, the remnants of buried mountains, which sometimes rise full a thousand feet higher.1 Thick

as the ice may be, it evidently swathes a hill-region. The undulations of its surface indicate the contours of the buried land, and each of its huge glaciers marks the course of a valley. The configuration of the ground in the interior of Greenland is a matter for conjecture. Nansen, in crossing the inland ice at about latitude 63°, found no sign either of mountain ranges or of any marked inequality. He traversed a huge plateau, at a height of from 8000 to 9000 feet above the sea, which for many miles was as nearly as possible level, and from which frozen snow shelved gently down eastwards and westwards.

2

The greater

1 The Nunataks, as these projecting summits are called, visited by Nansen, are about 47 miles from the edge of the ice, and are about 5400 feet above the sea, the level of the ice surface being about 4200. 2 The "divide" (practically a plain 8970 feet above the sea-level with a gentle rise towards the north), where crossed by Dr. Nansen, was about 226 miles from the west coast, and 126 from the east. On this side the average gradient was, at first, I in 23; on the other, I in 42; but the slope then became less, and gradually died almost away towards the interior.

part of the ascent to the higher portion, and of the descent from it, is over a vast field of sloping or gently undulating snow.1 The contours of the buried region are perceptible only in the more immediate neighbourhood of the coast, and probably cannot be detected beyond about a hundred miles from it. Here the "Nunataks" begin to emerge from the ice and to rise above its surface like islands from a sea. On approaching these from the interior, the undulations of the snowfields assume a more definite plan, and their slopes converge towards a broad shallow basinlike depression, which gradually deepens till the ice at the lower end runs like a broad causeway rather below the general level of the district. Here then the great central reservoir of ice is tapped by a definite drainage channel. This is the birthplace of one of the great glaciers. The ice no longer presents a smooth unbroken surface; crevasses become more frequent; travelling over it is at once more difficult and more dangerous. The scenery in one of these basins, though on a far grander scale, recalls that of the gathering-ground for one of the larger Alpine glaciers; such, for instance, as the névé of the Great Aletsch or the snow plateau which is the source of both the Gorner and the Findelen glaciers. In regions like the Alps, where the mountains rise more steeply than in Greenland, lateral glaciers form among the rocky ridges on either side of the great

1 Here the breadth of the continent is about 350 miles.

trunk-stream; these sometimes become its tributaries, though often, when their own gathering-ground is small, they melt away before reaching it. If so, their terminal moraines are spread out on the steep slopes, but occasionally may be confused with the lateral moraine of the trunk-stream. Such glaciers are less conspicuous features in Greenland scenery, owing to the greater depth of the ice and the more monotonous contours of the spurs separating the valleys; but occasionally an offshoot from the main mass of the inland ice may pass through the depression between two "Nunataks" in the direction. of the great effluent, the surface of which is already lying at a lower level. Thus the offshoot becomes relatively a tributary glacier, though from a common source, and the result of this is curious. No moraines can be seen on the inland ice, not even a solitary erratic spotting its pure white surface. These only make their appearance in the region of "Nunataks" and of valley glaciers. Even here they are generally insignificant compared with those on the glaciers of the Alps. The reason is obvious. Where no rock rises above the ice, no fragments can fall upon its surface; the possibility of a moraine ceases with the last " Nunataks," and as these are not large, the stream of blocks which they originate must be correspondingly small. Still, in a few cases, piled-up heaps of stone occur on the ice farther inland than might have been expected. One such

was observed during Nansen's expedition in the neighbourhood of the "Nunataks" which bear his name. The moraine was full 4000 yards in length; apparently it was about 500 feet high, but this magnitude proved to be illusory, for the débris was little more than a veneer to a hidden mound of ice, which had been screened by the material and thus kept from melting. Still, not only was this moraine larger than might have been expected from the size and character of the adjacent "Nunataks," but also the blocks on it were all subangular and polished. In other words, the material of which it was composed had travelled not upon, but beneath, a glacier. Its presence may be thus explained: an offshoot from a higher part of the main ice-sheet had passed between two of the "Nunataks" toward the surface of the trunk-stream below, and on this surface, which it had just succeeded in reaching, it had deposited its terminal moraine; this, however, as few blocks, if any, came from the adjacent "Nunataks," consisted of débris which had travelled beneath the ice, and thus bore the usual indications of such a passage.1

So far as can be ascertained, the quantity of this "ground moraine," even in Greenland, usually is not great. In one respect the estimation of it should be comparatively easy, because the configuration of the surface is not favourable to the accumulation

1 From what source this may have been derived will be discussed later.