55 MARIOX EXPEDITION TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIN BAY 



bergs were met, so thickly infesting the coastal waters that a small 

 boat had difficiilty in navigating through the Vaigat. Upernivik 

 district witnesses the release of the bergs about two weeks earlier 

 than Disko Bay because, owing to its exposed position, the fast ice 

 breaks earlier there. 



The iceberg fjords of Disko Bay and of Northeast Bay and their 

 discharging glaciers have been the object of more scientific study 

 than have any other similar parts of Greenland. Hammer (1893), 

 and Helland (1876). have made investigations of Torsukatak and 

 Jacobshavn Fjords. Drygalski (ISD.-)) devoted more than two years' 

 study to the glaciers in this district, especial attention being paid 



A West Greenland Glacier and Its Ice-Strewn Waters 



Figure 46. — Ekip-Sermia Glacier, which discharges into a tributary of the Atta Sound, 

 west Greenland, latitude 69° 40' N., longitude 50° 05' W. As we approached this 

 locality the color of the surface water took on a shade ( f light, milky green, due 

 to the great amount of " rock flour " ground out along the glacier bed. A darker 

 earth material lay suspended in the deeper layers of" the fjord, leaving a muddy 

 brown wake stirred up by the passage of the ship. Thousands of kittiwakes fed in 

 the ice-strewn waters. This glacier, unlike Great Kai"a.iak and several others, is 

 known as calving no ice of berg size. (Photograph by Boatswain J. B. Krestensen.) 



to Great and Little Karajak. Itividliarsuk. Sermilik. Rink, and 

 Umiamako. 



Great Karajak (ilacier, which debouches into the fjord of that 

 name, exhibits a front about 3 miles in width, and rises approxi- 

 mately 200 feet — in the middle, 300 feet — above the surface of the 

 fjord. The ice moves fastest at the outer end of the tongue, near its 

 middle, where rates as high as 60 to 75 feet per day have been re- 

 corded, but 35 to 60 feet is more representative. The rates of each 

 particular glacier, of course, vary, but some idea of the rapidity of 

 floAv of the west Greenland ice streams may be gained when they are 

 comjiared with the fastest glaciers of the Ali:)s, which travel about 



