An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 65 
southern passage generally has high granite coasts, with reef and 
skerries. Along the north side of-the primitive rock runs a belt of 
silurian formation, and afterwards, the further one goes towards the 
north and the north-west, are always newer palæozoic rocks. The 
east coasts of Baffin Land and North Devon are, however, essentially 
granitic, and face the other great region of primitive rock, Greenland. 
The climate is distinetly Arctic, having only two seasons: a short 
summer with open water, and a long winter when everything is 
congealed. As regards climate the Archipelago has retained much of 
the continental character of the mainland. In several places glaciers 
are found in the higher regions, but it does not seem that continuous 
masses of land ice cover any of the islands as they cover Greenland. 
Both in summer and winter north and north-westerly winds prevail. 
Of very great importance are the conditions of the sea ice, as the 
existence of the Eskimo is just as much bound up with the condi- 
tions on sea as with those on land. But in the Arctic regions, the 
sea is a very different element from the undulating billows of milder 
zones. Only during a couple of months in the summer, and in the 
most favourable areas is it sea in the ordinary sense of the word. 
The greater part of the year it is ice-covered and solid; but even this 
is not all, because only in a few places is the sea allowed to freeze 
smoothly as a lake does with us. Wind and current frequently drive 
masses of loose blocks of ice or pack-ice in towards the coast, whereby 
the newly formed ice is broken up, and the surface of the sea becomes 
rough and impassable, when the blocks freeze together in a coherent con- 
glomeration. Only in the most protected, remote straits and among the 
skerries are formed the smooth ice-surfaces which are called winter- 
ice in contradistinction to pack-ice, which may consist of blocks 
several years old. With the winter-ice, which breaks up every year, 
must not be confounded the, in places, perennial icefoot which in many 
places follows the coast, and forms a smooth and safe path for 
travelling by sledge. In this connection the question of whether the 
pack-ice originates as glacier ice or as sea ice is of very small impor- 
tance. The size of the blocks is only of significance in so far as 
regards the greater or lesser force with which they press forward, or, 
in the case of their stranding on bars somewhat off the shore, form 
a barrier in front of deep coast waters, over which the winter ice 
can form. The latter happens at the north-east coast of Baffin 
Land, and especially at several places between Bering Strait and 
Point Barrow. 
The conditions of ice at Greenland are well known. On the west 
coast the winter ice lies only on the innermost waters, whereas north 
of Egedesminde it may lie further out to sea; and, as a rule, in 
North Greenland it is only in the month of July that it entirely 
melts away. It is from the drift-ice that Greenland gets the Polar sea-ice, 
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