Survey of Northeast Greenland. 419 
the fjords, where the spring is farthest advanced, where the air 
is quite mild in the deep river valleys, and where a fairly large 
river as a rule sends very large quantities of water across the fjord, 
whilst innumerable tiny rivulets of melting water trickle over the 
beaches along the sides of the fjord — here in particular the melting 
of the ice is far advanced. The innermost parts of the fjords 
are already quite open. The wind which sweeps the valleys of the 
fjords in alongitudi- 
nal direction may 
produce small waves 
along the surface of 
the water, and the 
wear and tear of 
the waves now be- 
gins to make itself 
felt and helps to 
disintegrate the ice. 
We are nowin 
the month of July. 
The ice is breaking 
away from the 
shores; but out in 
the fjords and in 
the bays it still lies 
unbroken and hid- 
den under the snow. 
In the localities 
where the snow has 
not accumulated in 
too large quantities, 
small lakes now 
begin to form. It 
is the slush from the deeper lying strata, which now here and there 
reaches as far as the surface, and as the lakes have no connection 
with the water of the fjords, the water in the former is fresh. These 
lakes quickly extend in the direction of the wind, in that the small 
waves simply eat up the snow at the margins of the lake. In this 
manner elongated, sinuous channel-like lakes are formed, which may 
pass into a whole system of inter-connected channels. 
The snow slush has only very little effect in dissolving the 
nearly fresh ice of the fjord, so that the snow and the snow slush 
rather serve to protect the ice against the warm air and the rays of 
the sun. Otherwise is it with the water of the channels. Here we 
Fig. 103. Lakes forming on the ice of the harbour. 
First half of July. 
