30 



IKlDljOF NANSKN. 



M.-N. Kl- 



Fig. II. Shore at Cape Elisabeth, Bear Island (after a photograph by J. G. Andersson). 



and flexible, and very different from the hard, solid, and brittle fresh- 

 water ice. 



For this reason the sea-water, when it penetrates into the fissures of 

 the rocks and freezes there, has not as great a disintegrating power as the 

 fresh-water, and there is a material difference in this respect even if the 

 water contains comparatively little salt [cf. O. E. Schiotz, 1894]. 



One might, therefore, expect that the sea-water cannot by freezing 

 produce a very powerful erosive effect on the shores, especially if it is not 

 much diluted with fresh-water. It is an obvious difference in this respect 

 between the shores of a lake and the shores of the sea. 



It has, however, to be considered that in the fjords, and sounds, and 

 enclosed parts of the sea, especially in the Arctic or glacial regions, the 

 sea-surface is generally covered by layers that are very much diluted by 

 river-water, and by the melting water of glacier-ice carried into the fjords, 

 often producing nearly fresh surface-layers. 



Moreover, nearly fresh surface-layers are quite commonly formed in 

 Arctic seas by the melting during the summer of the ice, formed in the 

 sea during the winter. If the sea is sheltered against waves by floating 

 ice, or by islands, this fresh surface-layer may remain more or less un- 

 stirred during the summer and autumn, till it again freezes next winter. 



In this manner, the disintegrating power of the sea, caused by 

 freezing, will become more vigorous along sheltered coasts, either in fjords 

 and sounds, or where the coast is sheltered by floating ice. 



In a somewhat different manner the sea has, however, a much greater 

 erosive effect along the shores in cold climates. As was mentioned before, 

 glaciers or patches of snow may, by alternate thaw and frost, have a 

 vigorous disintegrating effect upon the rocks along their edges. 



Similar conditions prevail along coasts in an Arctic or glacial climate. 

 Ice is formed on the beach or along the shore-line, just above high-tide 



