FORMER GLACIATION OF SCAIS'DINAVIA DISCUSSED, 373 



There is no confluent sheet of ice at the base of the mountains, spreading 

 over the comjjaratively level region, and extending to a great distance from 

 the place of its origin. We do not even know positively that it has been so 

 at any former time. The evidence as to former glaciation of parts of Green- 

 land now free from ice is so conflicting that no positive statement in regard 

 to it can be made. Still, the weight of the testimony is to the effect that 

 the glaciers are — in places, at least — smaller now than they have been : 

 whether essentially so cannot be stated. If, however, we could indicate the 

 changes of climate or topography which would bring about in the Scandi- 

 navian Range a condition similar to that of Greenland at the present time, 

 no doubt the larger number of geologists would feel that, if the problem had 

 not been entirely solved, considerable progress had been m.ade towards its 

 solution. 



The first thing which impresses us, in comparing the three regions in 

 question, is the fact that the least glaciated is that one which has a position 

 indicating for it the most continental climate, while the one which is most 

 covei'ed with snow and ice is so isolated from other land as to give a marked 

 oceanic character to its climate. The Ural Mountains extend through the 

 great land mass of Eurasia : the mean annual precipitation over the adjacent 

 level country on both sides the range is very small, ranging from sixteen to 

 twenty inches only ; and even on the summit it is not much larger. On the 

 Scandinavian Range, on the other hand, the precipitation is large, and 

 especially on the Avestern side, although we find it rapidly falling off when 

 we cross the water-shed and descend upon the Swedish plains. Of the 

 amount of the snow-fall over the higher portion of Greenland — the neve 

 region from which the glaciers are supplied — Ave have, of course, no sta- 

 tistics, but we know that it must be large, unless we are disposed to believe, 

 Avith Bessels, that the icebergs Avhich are now being formed OAve their exist- 

 ence to a stock of snoAv laid up in former ages, Avhen the precijjitation was 

 much greater than it uoav is.* 



Again, the least glaciated range is the one topographically least fitted 

 for the development of extensive glaciers. These, as has been shoAvn in the 

 preceding pages, can only originate Avhere the form of the surface is such as 

 to favor the delivery of the frozen precipitation of a large area at one point. 

 Thus, as Ave have seen, the neve fields of Norway are like great permanent 

 reservoirs, the overfloAv from Avliich takes place through tlie notches or gaps 



* Die Ami'iikaiiischi' Nonljiol-Exjieditioii, p. 471. 



