Survey of Northeast Greenland. 431 
It consequently came as a surprise to us, when it turned out 
that in Northeast Greenland there is no continuous ice-free coast 
land to speak of between the 76th and the 82nd parallels. A glance 
at the map shows that Dronning Louises Land, Hertugen af Orleans 
Land and Lamberts Land must in reality more particularly be looked 
upon as nunataks in the inland ice, and only Germania Land and 
the coast from about 79°40’ to 81° appear as ап ice-free coast land 
in the ordinary sense of the word. The cause of this poverty of 
coast land is that on long stretches there is an absence of continuous 
coast mountains, which might force the inland ice to seek an outlet 
through comparatively narrow valleys. In particular on two stretches, 
from 78° to 79°40’ and in the northern part of Kronprins Christians 
Land, does the inland ice spread itself fairly unhindered by the relief 
of the surface, and conceal the coast stretches from our view. 
Northeast Greenland is built of gneiss. Here and there sediment 
occurs in smaller localities; but these are so scattered, and the areas 
are so small that from a topographical point of view they play an 
inferior part. It is therefore first and foremost the gneiss and the 
external influences to which it has been exposed throughout the 
years, which determine the character of the landforms. Peary Land 
must in the main be supposed to have been formed of sedimentary 
rocks, which are, however, nearly equal to gneiss in their power of 
resistance. 
The alpine landform. 
By far the greater part of the present ice-free coast land has in 
former times been covered with inland ice; only certain well pro- 
tected tracts, certain highly situated parts or a few high peaks pro- 
jected like nunataks through the ice. These mountainous parts and 
peaks continued through the European-North-American glacial period 
to be exposed to the disintegrating influence of the atmosphere, but 
in return they were exempted from the smoothing and _ polishing 
erosion of the ice. A characteristic feature of the alpine landform 
is the great quantity of tall, pyramidal, sharply angular and as a 
rule inaccessible mountains with cirques (corries, kessel) filled up with 
névés. The longitudinal valleys are often deeply indented, winding 
and filled with glaciers. 
South of Jokelbugten the Danmark-Ekspedition has only in a 
single place been able to prove the existence of this landform, that — 
is in Barth Berge (altitudes about 1600m), but it is possible that 
certain parts round Bessels Fjord and Ardencaple Inlet must be in- 
cluded in this group. In the same manner we are inclined to class 
XLVI. 28 
