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power to resist the ravages of erosion. The Igaliko sandstone, 
too, has for the most part disappeared in a similar way. At the 
close of the Mesozoic and perhaps also during the Tertiary 
period the surface of the country was for the second time 
reduced to a peneplain, surmounted here and there by a few iso- 
lated and smoothed monadnocks. 
In the Quaternary period the country was entirely covered 
by thick inland ice. The ice removed all incoherent and wea- 
thered material from the surface, and dissected the peneplain 
into deep valleys and fjords. Later, the inland ice retired 
from the coast belt leaving local glaciers in the highest parts 
of the country, where local glaciation has produced an Alpine 
type of sculpture. Still later, the ice has contracted to its 
present boundaries. 
The high mountains of Ilimausak and Igdlerfigsalik present 
typical examples of the Alpine topography, and here con- 
siderable remnants of the local glaciers are at work. At the 
foot of Igdlerfigsalik the ice stream of Korok, which has its 
origin in the inland ice, may be regarded as a small remnant 
of one of the large fjord glaciers of the ice age. The pre-Qua- 
ternary peneplain is believed to be represented by the ice 
smoothed plateau which can now be seen around Ilimausak at 
an altitude of 700—900 meters, and towards the inner part of 
the country their altitude increases. The fjords, as already 
mentioned, are thought to have been excavated by the ice, but 
the first beginning of their formation is probably much older 
than the Quaternary. In that respect it is worth mentioning 
that the main direction of the fjords coincides with the direc- 
tion of the most important system of dykes which radiate from 
the Paleozoic Plutonic rocks. 
The Quaternary sediments of the country around Julianehaab 
are but slight in bulk. A little morainic material often covers 
the plateau; relatively large screes are found on the slopes of 
the rapidly decaying batholitic rocks, and alluvial fans occur at 
