OLACIATIOX OF THE CIRCUMPOLAR REGION. 307 



em border, are considerabl_y depressed below other areas lying nearer the 

 coast. This fact does not favor the idea of one great central depression 

 occupjing all the interior of Greenland, filled to the brim with snow and 

 only discharging by actual flow from a higher to a lower level through the 

 gaps in the surrounding frame-work of mountains. But as no other observer 

 has reported anything else than a gradual I'ise of the land, on the Avest coast, 

 from its lower edge eastward so far as followed, it will perhaps be well not 

 to indulge in speculations on the extraordinary conditions described by 

 Helland. 



We have thus become acquainted with the principal sources of informa- 

 tion in regard to the glacial geology of Greenland. Some of the more im- 

 portant facts developed in the course of the different explorations have been 

 already stated ; others will come up for consideration and discussion farther 

 on in their proper connection, or where they may seem likely to tlirow light 

 on difficulties presented by facts pertaining to a period of greater previous 

 extension of ice over certain regions. At the present stage of our disciis.sion 

 the most important question to l)e considered is, whether throughout the 

 various land masses of the northern circumpolar region similar conditions 

 are exhibited in regard to glaciation ; or, in other words, is there a continu- 

 ous ice-cap, or anything resembling one, over the farthest northern lands. 

 We have already seen that for Greenland itself this is not the case. There 

 is on the west side a broad strip upon which the inland ice does not encroach. 

 In fact where the mountains recede from the coast, there the ice does the 

 same ; it is only where the topographical conditions are ftxvorable that the 

 glacier descending from the interior finds its way to the sea. On the east 

 side, as we have seen, the freedom of certain regions from ice and snow is 

 indeed remarkable. A similar condition of thinsrs is revealed when we come 

 to examine the other lands not previously included in our review of the 

 Polar regions. 



Most interesting in tliis respect is the contrast in the condition of things on 

 the two opposite and closely adjacent sides of Kennedy Channel. De Ranee 

 and Feilden say '' The absence of an ice-cap in Grinnell Land, and the 

 paucity of the glaciers in that region, are worthy of note, none descending to 

 the sea-level north of 81°; while on the same parallel on the opposite coast 

 of Hall Basin, on the Greenland coast, the country is ice-clad to the water's 

 edge."* Captain Nares also remarks: "We cannot definitely state that we 



* Voyage to the Polar Sea, Vol. 11. r- 3^3. 



