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NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



but Etah is better for the study of 

 the dovekies, the eider, the ptarmigan, 

 and the snow-bunting. Foulke Fjord, 

 Inglefield Gulf, and its tributaries, and 

 Wolstenholme Sound all offer fascina- 

 ting fields for dredging the bottom life 

 of the sea. 



The entire region offers an interesting 

 field for the physiographer, but two 

 tracts are particularly promising; the 

 shores of Grenville Bay, a tributary 

 of Wolstenholme Sound, for a com- 

 parative study of glacier forms and 

 phenomena; and Prudhoe Land, lying 

 north of Etah, for a study of the possi- 

 ble relationships between the oscilla- 

 tion of the sea level, as shown by coastal 

 terraces, the recession and advance of 

 glaciers as indicated by serial terminal 

 moraine, and the development of the 

 drainage systems. A careful study of 

 these two areas might throw much 

 light on the phenomena and history 

 of glaciation. 



ROUTES OF TRAVEL 



Except in rare j'ears of exceptionally 

 heavy ice-lay, the Northwest Greenland 

 may readily be reached by well-built 

 ships with dependable motive power. 

 The route lies across the lower reaches 

 of Baffin Bay from the Labrador Coast 

 to the vicinity of Sukkertoppen, or 

 Godthaab, Greenland, and thence north- 

 ward fairly close into shore to avoid the 

 heavy pack which occupies the middle 

 portion of Baffin Bay, as far as Uper- 

 nivik; thence the route must be deter- 

 mined by the situation of the middle 

 pack — if it lies off-shore the course may 

 be laid northward inshore to Cape 

 Seddon, thence northwestward to Cape 

 York and thence along the coast around 

 Conical Rock, and Northward; if the 

 ice lies inshore the course must be 

 laid out beyond the pack. 



The ice is generally not open enough 

 for navigation in those far northern 

 waters before mid-Julj^, though the 

 mid-western Danish Greenland coast 

 is accessible even in early May. The 

 southern portion of the west-Greenland 

 coast is almost continuously barred 



by the heavy ice that comes out of the 

 Arctic Ocean, drifts down along the 

 east coast, and swings around Cape 

 Farewell, then sweeps up along the 

 west coast for some 500 to 600 mi. 



By mid-September the ice is again 

 freezing thick and heavy in the bays 

 and fjords and along the shores of 

 Northwest Greeland, so that a ship 

 may find herself frozen in for the winter 

 if she remains beyond that time. Navi- 

 gation is frequently open along the mid- 

 west Danish Greenland coast until 

 mid-November. 



Northwest Greenland constitutes a 

 readily accessible, fruitful field for 

 study of far arctic life and habitats, 

 and will richly repay further research. 



2. DANISH GREENLAND 



By W. Elmer Ekblaw 



introduction 



Greenland, the earth's largest island, 

 lies just to the northeast of the North 

 American continent, of which it is a 

 detached part. North and south it 

 extends from 60° N. at Cape Farewell, 

 to 83° 37° N. at Cape Bridgeman, about 

 24° of latitude, or 1650 mi. East and 

 west it is roughly 650 mi. wide over its 

 northern three-fifth of extent; its south- 

 ern two-fifth gradually narrows to a 

 point at Cape Farewell. 



The area of Greenland is 850,000 sq. 

 mi., of which about three-fourths is 

 occupied by the ice-cap, a frozen desert 

 of age-old ice, thousands of feet thick; 

 while the other one-fourth is comprised 

 in the narrow coastal belt which becomes 

 generally free of ice and snow every 

 summer, so that the terrain itself is 

 there exposed. 



The north coast is washed by Kane 

 Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin, 

 and Robeson Channel, constituting the 

 straits between EUesmereland and Green- 

 land, and the ice-bound Arctic Ocean; 

 the east coast is washed by the Arctic 

 Ocean, the Greenland Sea, Denmark 

 Strait, and the Atlantic Ocean, in all 

 of which the cold Greenland current 



