47 



Dragged to the front of the ice, the rock bits, great and small, 

 roll out as the ice melts, some, especially the linest, being carried 

 away in the water, which is always muddy with the rock flour it 

 carries ; but much remains near the edge of the ice forming a 

 moraine (Figs. 24 and 25). This moraine, dumped at the edge of 

 the glacier, very closely resembles the hummocky hills of New York 

 (Figs. 26 and 27), mentioned above, which are really moraines 

 formed at the ice edge during the glacial period. While their form 

 is quite alike, the New York moraines are generally less pebbly than 



26. — A vieiD over the hummocky surface of a part of the moraine of tlie great 

 American tee slied in Central New York. 



the Greenland moraines, because the Greenland glacier carries less 

 rock flour than did the glacier which covered New York. 



In the Greenland glacier, as you can see in Fig. 24, there is much 

 dirt and rock ; in the glacier of the glacial period there was even 

 more. When it melted away the ice disappeared as water, but the 

 rock fragments of course fell down upon the rock beneath and formed 

 soil. If over a certain region, as for instance over your home, the ice 

 carried a great load of drift, when this gradually settled down, 

 as the ice melted, it formed a deep layer of soil ; but if the glacier 



439 



