262 THE ONLY ROUTE BY WHICH 



being so confined, and in a great elevation, invariably become 

 ice, which is rarely aftewards dissolved. Each succeeding 

 year increases its volume, and the glacier is formed. 

 Such is the progress of glacier ice in Switzerland. There 

 it is known to lie only in elevated situations ; but not having 

 at hand a scale of such elevations, I must request the 

 reader to make that very needful reference. 



In the southern parts of Greenland, the elevations are 

 much more considerable than the more northern. In those 

 parts therefore glacier ice may have been seen ; such pro- 

 bably as has shut up the western extremity of Frobisher's 

 Strait, and rendered that way no longer passable to 

 navigators. Indeed there is one very remarkable place on 

 the western coast of Greenland, which the Danes call the 

 Eis Blink, and which I have every reason to think is nothing 

 more than a monstrous berg, which by some " revolution 

 of nature," such as a contrary wind, and the great in- 

 draught which is known to exist on those shores, had many 

 years since been forced into that situation. 



In Greenland further north, from Reef Koll to the great 

 basaltic Disko, the land becomes remarkably low and 

 rounded, few mountains there appearing. The existence 

 therefore of glacier ice cannot be, in those places, pro- 

 bable. The intersections of Greenland by its numerous 

 internal waters are, however, difficult of investigation 



