THE MUSEUM. 



25 



the Antarctic regions that glaciers of 

 such vast dimensions and of like modes 

 of action are now found, and of these, 

 Greenland offers the only accessable 

 field of investigation. Hence the im- 

 portance of studying its glaciers as a 

 means of eludication of one of our 

 most important and interesting geo- 

 logical formations. 



Evidences of like action are found 

 in both countries. .For instance, gla- 

 ciers in moving over the surface rub 

 away the soil and sub-soil land break 

 up and carry along with them more or 

 less of the rock below, and in doing 

 this they score and groove and polish 

 the underlying rock surface in a way 

 altogether pecular to themselves. 

 They thus engrave their own record — 

 their autobiography, so to speak — and 

 we have only to decipher their lan- 

 guage to read their history. The ma- 

 terial that is carried along by them is 

 also rubbed, bruised and scratched, 

 and more or less ground to powder, 

 and when the action ceases this mate- 

 rial is spread out upon the surface or 

 heaped up into ridges alone. All these 

 characteristics are abundantly display- 

 ed in both countries, and it is quite 

 clear that the work that is now being 

 done by the glaciers of Greenland is 

 of the same nature as that formerly 

 done upon a large part of our country. 



This implies great changes in our 

 climate. The climate of Greenland 

 probably formerly prevailed over our 

 northern states. Glaciation is, how- 

 ever, a very strange phenomenon, and 

 we do not yet know all its mysteries 

 nor the full range of conditions that 

 render it possible. I examined four- 

 teen glaciers in the northern district, 

 •and three on Disco island. In a more 



general way I saw something of three 

 or four score others, but can hardly 

 be said to have examined them. It 

 should be understood that nearly all 

 these are tongues, or lobes, of the 

 great inland icecap of Greenland, or 

 of local icecaps, and that the study of 

 these icecaps was an important part 

 of my work. 



I visited the inland ice and had the 

 good fortune to have the guidance of 

 Lieut. Peary in a trip upon the main 

 icecap, in which we went sufficiently 

 far to get a typical view of the great 

 fields of the interior. My studies were, 

 however, chiefly on its margin, as it 

 was most important to me to ascer- 

 tain what was the nature of the base 

 of the ice, and its methods of erosion, 

 transportation and deposition. The 

 glaciers of the Alps, and of mountains 

 generally, are chiefly formed from 

 snows accumulated on the upper slopes 

 in lofty amphitheatres or in the ravines 

 or gulches that crease their peaks. 

 These creep down the valleys, often 

 joining similar streams from adjacent 

 valleys. They may be likened to the 

 branches of a tree, gathering into a 

 common trunk. The glaciers of 

 Greenland, on the contrary, chiefly 

 spring from an icecap, which covers 

 the whole interior. From this icecap 

 tongues creep out in all directions. 

 Instead of several snow fields gather- 

 ing to form one glacier one snow field 

 sends out many glaciers. The great 

 icecap of Greenland puts forth some 

 hundreds of glaciers. There are, how- 

 ever, glaciers of the Alpine type in 

 Greenland. 



One of the most obvious character- 

 istics of most of the glaciers I studied 

 is their termination in vertical faces, 



