1910.] INLAND-ICE OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. Ill 



Arctic Ocean southward in Baffin's Bay, follows the western shore,, 

 while a warmer counter current flows northward along the eastern 

 or Greenland coast at least in its southern stretches. Tarr thinks 

 this current may reach as far as ]\Ielville Bay.^*^ In addition, the 

 gentler slopes of the western surface of the ice are perhaps more 

 favorable to the warm and dry " thaw wind " — the well-known 

 foehn of Greenland. 



Again, ablation or surface melting is to a large extent dependent 

 upon the quantity of rock debris which is blown onto the ice sur- 

 face from its margins. In southern Greenland, at least, the wider 

 ribbon of exposed shore land upon the western coast conspires with 

 the prevailing western winds to make a more effective marginal 

 attack upon the anti-cyclone of the continent. Nansen reports that 

 he found on the east coast none of the rock dust first described by 

 Nordenskiold as " cryoconite," though it extended inward from the 

 western coast as much as 30 kilometers.*' 



Still further it is to be remembered that the ice of the west 

 margin is intersected by many deep fjords, which communicating 

 with the open sea, remove an enormous quantity of ice in the form 

 of bergs. Upon the eastern coast the pack-ice prevents the removal 

 of bergs except from the southern latitudes. 



Effect of the Warm Season Within the Marginal Zones of the 

 Inland-ice. — In winter the entire surface of the ice and the border 

 of the land as well, are covered with an unbroken layer of fine, dry 

 snow. The suddenness of the change to summer within the land 

 zone outside the ice front, has been emphasized by Trolle. The 

 temperature of the snow upon the land in northeast Greenland rose 

 gradually with the arrival of summer until the melting point was 

 reached, and then in one day all the snow melted. " The rivers, 

 were rushing along, flowers were budding forth, and in the air the 

 butterflies were fluttering." ** 



The snow upon the surface of the inland-ice where studied by 



*" R. S. Tarr, "Difference in the Climate of the Greenland and Ameri- 

 can Sides of Davis' and Baffin's Bay," Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. 3, 1897, pp. 315- 

 320. 



" Mohn und Nansen, /. c, p. go. 



''TroIIe, /. c, p. 66. 



