I9I0.] INLAND-ICE OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 59 



There are, as we shall see, other attributes which strikingly dif- 

 ferentiate the large continental glaciers from all other bodies of 

 land ice. These relate particularly to the nature of the snow 

 which feeds them, to changes which that snow undergoes after its 

 fall, to the manner of its transportation, etc. Most of these dif- 

 ferences are of such recent discovery, or at least of such recent 

 introduction into the channels of dissemination of science, that they 

 have not yet found their way to the student of glacial geology. 

 We shall profitably begin our description of continental glaciers 

 with the intermediate ice-cap type, so as to establish connection with 

 mountain glaciers in the important condition of alimentation. Be- 

 fore doing so, it will be well to call attention to some contrasts 

 which exist between the north and south polar regions in those 

 conditions upon which glaciation depends. 



North and South Polar Areas Contrasted. — A glance at a globe, 

 which sets forth the land and water areas of the earth, is sufficient 

 to show that the disposition of land and water about the opposite 

 ends of the earth's axis is essentially reciprocal. About the north 

 pole we find a polar sea, the Arctic Ocean, surrounded by an irreg- 

 ular chain of land masses which is broken at two points, nearly 

 diametrically opposite. In the Antarctic region, on the contrary, 

 it is a high continent which surrounds the pole, and this is bounded 

 on all sides by a sea in which are joined all the great oceans of the 

 globe. This polar continent is deeply indented on two nearly 

 opposite margins, but to what extent is not yet known. The 

 margins of the continent are extended beneath the sea in a wide 

 continental shelf or platform. The broad encircling ocean, while 

 to some extent invaded by the southern land tongues of South 

 America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, is yet so little oc- 

 cupied by land masses that wind and ocean currents are alike but 

 slightly affected by them. The Antarctic conditions are, therefore, 

 oceanic — characterized by uniformity and symmetry to a much 

 larger extent than is true of the northern polar region. 



clearly recognized to be a result of sub-aerial disintegration rather than 

 erosion, is however, practically that advanced by Richter, since it takes no 

 account of the bergschrund. (W. M. Conway, "An Exploration in 1897 

 of some of the Glaciers of Spitzbergen," Geogr. Jour., Vol. 12, 1898, pp. 

 142-147.) 



