Survey of Northeast Greenland. 443 
During the first half of June the melting of the snow begins; 
the moisture accumulates in the snow, and the water begins to ooze 
from the snow drifts. A sudden thaw does not occur, but the 
melting water accumulates in the rivulets, which in June reach such 
a magnitude that many of them become troublesome obstacles in 
the path of the tra- 
veller. During the 
first half of July the 
water courses attain 
their maximum; in 
many places they 
sweep across bogs 
and meadow tracts 
and flood the latter 
(see Fig. 79). But 
already in the latter 
half of July they 
decrease to a very 
perceptible degree, 
and in September, 
when the melting 
of the snow ceases, 
only the larger of 
themlingeron.From 
the beginning of Oc- 
tober all the little 
rivers cease to run. 
The beds of the 
rivers, which are 
now either quite 
dried out or covered Fig. 137. River bed excavated in the snow. 
Danmarks Havn. June. 
by a thin crust of 
ice, frozen to the bottom, are soon hidden under the winter snow, 
which fills them in such a manner, that hardly even a faint hollow 
in the surface of the earth betrays their existence below the snow. 
This snow, which in the winter fills the beds of the small arctic 
rivers, in the summer give them a characteristic stamp. The water- 
courses which every year must excavate and melt a bed for them- 
selves in the snow, in this manner are often made to floatin a deep 
channel, which on either side is bounded by steep walls of snow, 
and spanned by more or less safe snow bridges. The snow bridges 
which may keep throughout the summer, in the course of the autumn 
assume an ice-like character; the larger of them may then form long 
