300 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 



to penetrate into the interior of the country. The glacier, called by Dr. 

 Kane " My Brother John's/' over which the inland ice Avas reached, was 

 found to be 3,120 feet wide at its termination ; and, at a point not far from 

 this, the amount of motion of tlie ice, near its edge, was ascertained (in 

 May) to have been 8".6 in thirty hours. Nowhere was any trace of a moraine 

 to be seen in following up the glacier, which rose rapidly and constantly. 

 At a distance of twenty-seven miles from the lower extremity a height of 

 3,181 feet was attained, and it was here that the line of the verc was reached. 

 At this point Bessels, being entirely alone, found himself obliged to turn 

 back. It does not appear that there were any particular obstacles to farther 

 progress connected with the weather or with the surface of the glacier ; and 

 it would seem as if, at this point, froui which the interior was found both 

 by Hayes and Bessels to be apparenth' so accessible, a small party, -with 

 the necessary assistance for carrying food and covering, might penetrate 

 to a considerably greater distance without much difficulty. It is not 

 stated by Bessels whether the surface of the ice appeared to rise continu- 

 ously beyond the highest point reached by him ; but it is mentioned 

 that from a point eight miles above the termination of the glacier the 

 eastern horizon was nothing but a line of snow, above which not a single 

 peak rose. 



The next attempt to explore the interior of Greenland, from the west 

 coast, was made by Amnnd Helland, and it was more systematic than any 

 which had been previouslj- undertaken. This observer spent the months of 

 June, July, and August, 1875, in examining the region between the colony of 

 Egedesminde (latitude 68° 42') and the fiord Kangerdlugssuak (71° 15'). The 

 southern limit of Helland's field of exploration was in the immediate vicinity 

 of the point from which Nordenskjold started, as mentioned above (6S° 20'). 

 Helland ascended upon the inland ice in several places, measured the dimen- 

 sions of some of the glaciers by which, along that part of the coast, its over- 

 flow is carried down to lower regions, and determined their rate of motion 

 at several points, and especially that of the great glacier at the head of the 

 Jakobshavn Fiord. He did not succeed, however, in penetrating into the 

 interior to any considerable distance, although there seems to have been no 

 special difficulty in the way of doing this connected either Avith the weather 

 or the character of the ice surface. Helland describes the inland ice, iu most 

 respects, very much as Nordenskjold does, noting especially the absence of 

 detritus on its surface and the large number of running streams, the season 



