SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 



83 



flows, its icebergs have a strikingly flat-toi^ped, tabular appearance, 

 averaging about TO feet in height when floating. Nansen Glacier pro- 

 duces similar shaped bergs, even loftier. And Steenstrup and Nansen 

 Glaciers are peculiar from any of the glaciers of the west coast in dis- 

 charging such large blocks.^- The coast between Hayes Glacier and 

 Giesecke Glacier contributes very few icebergs, while the production 

 of Giesecke and Upernivik Glaciers, it is also stated by Porsild ^^ and 

 Koch (1923, p. 53) has been unduly emphasized in early literature. 

 Upernivik Glacier discharges a fair number of bergs, but they are 

 mostly small and often ground in the offing of the skerries. 



Melville Ba}^ is furthermore marked Avith many banks which are 

 sufficiently shallow to strand the bergs and thus detain them from 

 driftinii- out of Baffin Bav. Such shoals are known to exist off Diet- 



A Greenland Iceberg Fjord 



I'iGiKE 41. — Umanak Fjord looking east from the north shore of Nugsuak Peninsula. 

 Umanak is one of the most important iceberg fjords on the west coast of Green- 

 land. The fjords north of the seventieth parallel of latitude are normally 

 covered by fast iie during the colder months, causing the icebergs to be held in 

 the fjords until the break-up of the fast ice in June. (Photograph by A. Heim 

 in Meddeleleser om Gronland, vol. 47.) 



lichson and King Oscar Glaciers because of the great number of 

 bergs held there for protracted periods. The coast from Wilcox 

 Head to Svartenhuk Peninsula is famous for its maze of off-lying 

 islands, rocks and skerries, and the irregularity of the offshore ground, 

 by tending to prevent the bergs from drifting out to sea greatly off- 

 sets the productivity of the glaciers in this section. It is estimated 

 that the district Cape York to Svartenhuk Peninsula annually con- 

 tributes about 1,500 bergs to the quota of Baffin Bay. 



probahly 

 that " 



Since 19L'!i was a rich lnrg year off Newfoundland, a possible cause may have been the 

 r.'lease of larger than nurni il imnilit-rs of Melville Hay icebergs. 

 ^' In conrersat'on. 



