I9I0.] INLAND-ICE OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 7» 



beneath it; though a height of the snow surface of approximately 

 9,000 feet was reached by Nansen at a point where it could hardly 

 be expected to be a maximum. The snow surface to the north of 

 his section was everywhere rising, and it is likely that it attains an 

 altitude to the northeastward well above 10,000 feet. 



Though doubtless almost flat within its central portions, and only 

 gently sloping outward at distances of from seventy-five to one 

 hundred miles within its margin, the snow surface falls away sO' 

 abruptly where it approaches its borders as to be often quite difficult 

 of ascent (see Fig. 19).-^ The monotony of the flatly arched cen- 



FiG. 19. The section across the inland-ice of Greenland, near the 64th 

 parallel of latitude in natural proportions and with vertical scale ten times- 

 the horizontal (after Nansen). 



tral portion of the isblink gives place to wholly different characters 

 as the margins are approached. The ice descends in broad terraces, 

 or steps, which have treads of gentle inclination but whose risers are 

 of greater steepness, and this steepness is rapidly accelerated as the 

 margin is neared. In Fig. 20 have been placed together for com- 

 parison the profiles of Peary, Nordenskiold and Nansen on the dif- 

 ferent routes which they travelled toward the interior from the 

 coast. 



The margins of the Greenland continent where uncovered by 

 the ice, are generally mountainous, with heights reaching in many 

 cases to between 5,000 and 8,000 feet on the east shore- and be- 

 tween 5,000 and 6,000 feet on the west shore. The bordering ice- 

 caps within these areas are developed in special perfection on the 

 islands of the archipelago about King Oscars fjord and Kaiser 



*' R. E. Peary, " A Reconnoissance of the Greenland Inland-ice," Jour. 

 Am. Gcogr. Soc, Vol. 19, 1887, pp. 261-289. 



"Petermann Peak near Franz Josef fjord on the east coast, which ac- 

 cording to Nansen has an estimated height of 11,000-14,000 feet, has recentljr 

 been shown to be not more than half that height (A. G. Nathorst, Pet. Mitt.^ 

 Vol. 45, 1899, p. 242). 



