I9I0.] INLAND-ICE OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 99 



the Greenland ice sheet is a great nourishing region, while the 

 western slope, on the other hand, is the locus of excessive melting 

 and discharge. In support of this view he adduces chiefly the 

 admitted lack of symmetry of the ice mass."* So far as alimenta- 

 tion is concerned, the view does not seem to be as yet supported by 

 any observations, and it can hardly be regarded as a tenable hypo- 

 thesis. 



Tlie Circulation of Air over the Isblink. — Xo exact data upon 

 atmospheric pressures are as yet available except from stations near 

 the sea level, mainly along the western and northern coasts. Until 

 stations have been maintained for a more or less protracted period 

 within the interior of Greenland, none can be expected. None the 

 less, upon the basis of the observed winds in those portions of 

 Greenland which have been traversed, it may be safely asserted that 

 a fixed area of high atmospheric pressure is centered over the Green- 

 land isblink, and that the cold surface of this mass of ice is directly 

 responsible for its location there. Xansen, as early as 1890, an- 

 nounced this fact, having observed " that the winds which prevail 

 on the coasts have an especial tendency to blow outwards at all 

 points.""^ After many years of experience in different portions of 

 Greenland, Peary stated the law of air circulation above the con- 

 tinent in clear and forceful language :'^° 



Except during atmospheric disturbances of exceptional magnitude, which 

 cause storms to sweep across the country against all ordinary rules, the 

 direction of the wind of the " Great Ice " of Greenland is invariably radial 

 from the center outward, normal to the nearest part of the coast-land ribbon. 

 So steady is this wind and so closely does it adhere to this normal course, 

 that I can liken it only to the flow of a sheet of water descending the slopes 

 from the central interior to the coast. The direction of the nearest land is 

 always easily determinable in this way. The neighborhood of great fjords 

 is always indicated by a change in the wind's direction ; and the ci;ossing of 

 a divide, by an area of calm or variable winds, followed by winds in the 

 opposite direction, independent of any indications of the barometer. 



Except for light sea breezes blowing on to the land in Februarv, 



** E. V. Drygalski. " Die Eisbewegung, ihre physikalischen Ursachen und 

 ihre geographischen Wirkungen," Pet. Mitt., Vol. 44, 1898, pp. 55-64. See 

 also by the same author, " Gronland-Expedition, etc.," pp. 533-539. 



^^ Nansen, /. c, Vol. 2, p. 496. Also Mohn and Nansen, /. c, pp. 44-47. 



•^"Journeys in North Greenland," Geogr. Jour.. Vol. 11, 1898, pp. 233- 

 234. See also "Northward over the 'Great Ice,'" Vol. i, pp. Ixix-lxx. 



