78 HOBBS— CHARACTERISTICS OF THE [April 22, 



latitude of 68°. More recently (1907) Mylius Ericksen met his 

 tragic death in crossing the inland-ice in northeast Greenland, but 

 his results, most fortunately recovered, are not yet published. Yet 

 such is the monotony of the surface thus far revealed, and such the 

 uniformity of conditions encountered, that there is little reason to 

 think future explorations in the interior will disclose anything but 

 a desert of snow with such small variations from a horizontal 

 surface as are not strikingly apparent to the traveller at any one 

 observing point. 



Fig. 18. Sketch of the east coast of Greenland near Cape Dan. Shows 

 the inland-ice and the work of marginal mountain glaciers (after Nansen). 



Nansen has laid stress upon the close adherence of the curve of 

 his section to that of a circle, and has attempted to apply this inter- 

 pretation to the sections of both Nordenskiold and Peary made near 

 the latitude of Disco Bay.^^ If the marginal portions of the sections 

 be disregarded, this interpretation is possible for Nansen's own 

 profile, since it is in any case very flat ; but inasmuch as the margins 

 only were traversed in the other sections, the conclusions drawn 

 from them are likely to be misleading when extended into the un- 

 known interior. 



Hess,-° correcting Nansen's data so as to take account of the 

 curvature of the earth, finds the radius of this circle of the section 

 to be approximately 3,700 km. (instead of 10,380 km., as given 

 by Nansen). This radial distance being considerably less than the 

 average for the earth's surface, the curvature of the ice surface 

 where crossed by Nansen is considerably more convex than an 

 average continental section. 



We are absolutely without knowledge concerning either the 

 thickness of the ice shield or the elevation of the rock basement 



" H. Mohn und Fridtjof Nansen, " Wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse von 

 Dr. F. Nansens Durchquerung von Gronland, 1888," Pet. Mitt. Erg'dnsiingsh., 

 105, 1892, pp. i-iii, 6 pis., 10 figs. Especially Plate 5. 



* " Die Gletscher," pp. 105-106. 



