the whole region the mean annual temperature is below the freezing-point of water in the extreme north it is probably not higher than 4° F.-while the cold during the long winter months is intense, the January temperature about latitude 70° being often as low as 32°. It is not probable that the climate in any part of Europe during the Glacial Epoch was as severe as this, so that we may regard Greenland as exhibiting a picture of cold the effects of which cannot have been outdone in the past history of that continent.

This

A study of the Arctic regions quickly impresses one fact upon our minds, viz., the markedly unequal distribution of the larger masses of land-ice. completely covers a very large part of Greenland, while there are few glaciers of importance in Grinnell Land on the opposite side of Smith Sound.1 The other islands north of the American continent, though some are of a fair size and rise to a considerable elevation, nowhere exhibit an accumulation of ice in any way comparable with that of Greenland. The same is true of the northern part of Siberia; the cold there is no less intense than in the north of the other continent; a very large slice of Siberia is

1 "A very noticeable feature of Grinnell Land is the paucity of glaciers and the non-existence of an ice-cap, such as prevails in North Greenland. In Grinnell Land, north of latitude 81°, no glaciers descend to the sea-level, which they do in the same parallel on the opposite or Greenland coast of Hall Basin." - Captain Feilden, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., xxxiv. p. 567.

included within the annual isotherm of 32° F., no inconsiderable piece within that of 5°, while the January temperature of Yakutsk, in latitude 62° north, is as low as 40° F., and the soil is permanently frozen to a depth of about 700 feet. Yet in all this region, notwithstanding the intense cold, glaciers are unknown. The reason is simple: the

air is dry and the snowfall is but light. So far as temperature goes, a Glacial Epoch rules in Siberia, but no marks of ice action will be left behind in the event of its departure.

Something more, however, is necessary for the formation of an ice-cap, namely, a large land area. A mantle of perpetual snow swathes the islands of the Arctic Ocean-not only those of smaller size on the Greenland coast, but also those, both small and large, to the north of the American continent; yet in none is an ice-sheet found; this seems to require a land mass of almost continental dimensions. The more boldly the district is sculptured, the more easily, cæteris paribus, glaciers seem to form. A fairly level island will be merely snowcapped; its shores in summer time may be uncovered and support a scanty vegetation; but in one that rises into mountains, glaciers will stream down the valleys and enter the sea. Still, even here, the amount of ice appears, as might be expected, to be proportionate to the area of the gathering-round. There are important glaciers in Spitzbergen and in Franz Joseph's Land, but these are hardly to be com

FIG. 8.-Map of Greenland. The arrow-points mark the margin of the ice-field.

Jakobsh

NORDENSKIÖLD, 1883

Christianshaab

1888.

Cape Lowenhorn

Davis

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.