GLACIATION OF ICELAND. 295 



of Franz Josef's Land are such as belong to a region of very high hititude 

 where all the conditions are the most favorable to the largest development 

 of ice. But even here the lower land is not entirelv covered by the glacial 

 masses, although there are mountains not far distant which reach 5,000 feet 

 in elevation. The following points, however, are of sufficient importance to 

 make it worth while to give in full what Payer has to say in regard to them : 

 " The strong climatic disposition of Franz Josef's Land to the formation of 

 glaciers is shown by the fact that the smaller islands are covered with caps 

 of ice [blasenartig iibergletschert], so that a cross-section would exhibit a 

 regular tlat segment [of ice], and that many ice streams descending from the 

 high neve plateaux spread themselves out over the mountain slopes, and do 

 not as is the case with us [i. e. in the Alps] need to be confined to valleys 

 and basins."* Here also, as in Greenland, the large size of the river channels 

 in the ice showed that immense streams of water poured over its surface in 

 summer, the result of rapid melting under the influence of the sun's rays. 

 Signs of winter thawing, on the other hand, were not perceived, and this 

 naturally connects itself with the absence of apparent motion. 



Iceland is in the same latitude and in close proximity to that part of the 

 east coast of Greenland which is most inaccessible, and of which least is 

 known. Its most southern point is in latitude 03°; its northern edge just 

 touches the Arctic Circle. The coast of Greenland opposite and between the 

 same parallels is that desolate region a part of which was explored by Graah 

 and along which the men of the "Hansa" were carried on their ice-floe.t Yet 

 Iceland is somewhat thickly inhabited, has been a highly civilized commercial 

 and intellectual country, with a literature and historj' of its own of no small 

 value and importance. That the conditions requisite for prosperity and ad- 

 \%ance are not as favorable as they once were has already been suggested,^ 



* Dip Oesterreicldsche-Ungariscbe Nordpol-Expeflition, in den Jahren 1872- 1874, Wien, 1S77, p. 271. 



t See farther on, p. 30-4. 



J At a meeting of the Royal Geographical Societ}' held January 30, 1S82, after the reading of a paper by Mr. 

 C. E. Peck, the chairman made some remarks, in the course of which he said, that "the inhabitants of the island 

 [Iceland] were perfectly happy," that "they were the most contented race on the face of the earth," and that "they 

 seldom wanted to emigrate," etc. As these statements seem to be in contlict with the idea of a deterioration of the 

 climate of that island, advanced by the present writer, it will perhaps be well to state the fact that the Icelanders 

 have, within the past few years, emigrated extensively, namely to Brazil, Nova Scotia, Ontario, V\'isconsin, 

 Nebraska, Alaska, and ilanitoha. If a satisfactory climate could be found — that is, one where the Icelander 

 could re-acclimate himself without serious risk of health, —the people would perhaps emigrate en viaf:se. At all 

 events, the idea has been under serious consideration, aud committees have been sent in search of a " promised 

 land." 



