igio.] 



INLAND-ICE OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



75 



in the form of a perpendicular wall which he described under the 

 name " Chinese Wall." Over upland and plain this wall extended 

 with little apparent change in its character. At one place by pacing 

 and sextant angle its height was estimated at 143 feet (see Fig. 15). 



Fig. 15. View of the " Chinese Wall " surrounding the Agassiz Mer de 

 Glace on Grinnell Land (after Greely). 



The inland-ice of Ellesmere Land (see Fig 14) has been to some 

 extent explored along its borders by members of the Sverdrup ex- 

 pedition. The maps of the margin in the vicinity of Buchanan Bay 

 display much the same characters as may be observed along the 

 margins of the better known ice-caps and inland-ice masses of the 

 northern hemisphere.^® 



Of the inland-ice of Baffin Land little is known (see Fig. 16). 

 There are some indications that a small ice-cap exists upon the 

 neighboring island of North Devon. 



Physiography of the Continental Glacier of Greenland. 

 General Form and Outlines. — The inland-ice of Greenland, we 

 have now good reason to believe, has the form of a flat dome, 

 the highest surfaces of which lie somewhat to the eastward of the 

 medial line of the continent/'^ and which envelops all but a rela- 

 tively narrow marginal rim. This marginal ribbon of land is usu- 

 ally from five to twenty-five miles in width, may decrease to noth- 



" Otto Sverdrup, " New Land," 2 vols., London, 1904, pp. 496-504. 

 " F. Nansen, "The First Crossing of Greenland," Vol. 2, p. 404; R. E. 

 Peary, "Journeys in North Greenland," Gcogr. Jour., Vol. II., 1898, p. 232. 



