I9I0.] INLAND-ICE OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 117 



deep, and two to ten feet in width, with a Uttle stream at the 

 bottom of each.^- 



Aloats Betzueen Rock and Ice Masses. — Wherever the ice sends 

 a tongue down a valley, the edges of this ice shrink away from the 

 warmer rocks on either side, thus leaving lateral canyons walled 

 with ice on the one hand and with rock upon the other. Down 

 these canyons are the courses of glacial streams. ^^ An excellent 

 example of such a lateral stream is furnished by the Benedict glacier 

 (Plate XXIX, A).'-" 



In most cases where nunataks project through the ice surface, 

 the absorption of the sun's rays by the rock melts back the ice so 

 as to leave a deep trench surrounding the island and much resem- 

 bling the moat about an ancient castle. Snow drifted by the wind 

 often bridges or partially fills the moat. Upon nunataks forty miles 

 within the border of the ice in northeast Greenland the Danes found 

 water running in the ravines and disappearing under the ice at the 

 margin of the nunatak where it " formed the most fantastic ice- 

 grottoes, where the light was broken into all colors through the 

 crystal icicles." ^° 



Such moats have been mentioned by nearly all explorers upon the 

 ice. It has been claimed by von Drygalski that this phenomenon is 

 characteristic of the west coast margin only, more ample nourish- 

 ment upon the eastern coast making the snow rise about the rock 

 like a water meniscus. In support of this view he cites Garde, who 

 has figured such a case from the extreme south of Greenland.'"^ 

 Peary, however, has shown that the moats upon the west coast are 

 often largely filled with snow.^^ Stein mentions this as a common 

 feature after snow storms,"^ and Chamberlin^^ asserts that wherever 



^^Jour. Am. Gcogr. Soc, I. c, p. 282. 



®^ Peary, Jour. Am. Geogr. Soc, I. c, p. 286. 



"R. E. Peary, "North Polar Exploration, Field Work of the Peary 

 Arctic Club," 1898-02, Ann. Rept. Board of Regents Smith. Inst, for 1903, 

 1904, p. 517. 



"^ Trolle, Scot. Gcogr. Mag., Vol. 25, 1909, pp. 65-66. 



°^"Die Eisbewegung," etc., Pet. Mitt., Vol. 44, 189S, pp. 55-64. 



^ Peary, Geogr. Jour., I. c, p. 217. 



^ Stein, /. c. 



^Chamberlin, Jour. Gcol, Vol. 3, 1895, pp. 567-568. 



