296 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 



and a large amount of testimony could be brought forward in support of 

 that statement. The population is mostly collected on the southeastern end 

 of the island, and agriculture is, to a certain limited extent, remunerative. 

 Portions of the land ai'e, however, quite elevated, and these are covered by 

 snow-fields or neve, from which many glaciers descend to a low level, — some 

 nearly to the sea. Much the largest of these is the Vatna Jokull, which has 

 an area of over 3,000 square miles, with an elevation of over 6,000 feet in 

 its highest part. Mr. W. L. Watts crossed this great snow-field, and has 

 published an interesting account of the journey,* but his book gives little 

 information on points important to a student of glacial geology. It appears, 

 however, clear from Mr. Watts's statements that the glaciers of Iceland have 

 been rapidly advancing for some time past. Most of the journey across the 

 Jokull seems to have been made on snow, which had recently fallen to con- 

 siderable depth. 



Greenland, with its exceptional position as being a larger unbroken mass 

 of land than any other in high northern latitudes, presents, as might be 

 expected, peculiarly interesting glacial features. It extends from latitude 

 60° as far north as exploration has yet reached, or to beyond the parallel of 

 82°. From 78° north it is separated, on the west, by a narrow channel from 

 what seems to be, if not continuous land, at least a series of islands pretty 

 closely compacted together. Whether this land lying west of Smith Sound, 

 Kane Bay, and Kennedy Channel extends far to the west is quite unknown. 

 This narrow channel opens out a little beyond latitude 82°, and the coast has 

 been found to trend to the west on one hand and to the northea.st on the 

 other, indicating the termination of the land masses at this point. From this 

 east and west trending coast line a detachment of the Nares Expedition, in 

 command of Captain A. H. iSIarkham, made its way northw^ard over the 

 frozen surface of the ocean, called by them the " palceocrystic ice," as far as 

 latitude 83° 20' 26", this being the most northerly point yet reached by man. 

 From here no indication of land could be seen in the direction of the Pole. 



The west coast of Gi'eeidand has been traced uninterruptedly from Cape 

 Farewell to the farthest point reached by Lieutenant Beaumont, of the Nares 

 Expedition, in latitude 82° 20', the coast here trending east, as already 

 remarked. In fact almost all that is definitely known of Greenland is based 

 on observations made on that side, the east coast beino- much less accessible 

 and therefore only partially explored, and not at all so beyond the parallel 



* Across the Vatna Jokull, London, 1S76. 



