1876 ELEVATION OF POLAR LANDS. 247 



tation of fine snow which is constantly taking place. 

 Now there are again many parts left completely bare. 

 The fresh deposit of snow-drift which has collected near 

 the ship gives quite a clean appearance to the floe. 



1 At a distance of half a mile inland, we lately 

 found a raised sea-bed, 150 feet above the present level, 

 off which the snow had been swept by the wind. It 

 was strewed over with marine shells, some so well pre- 

 served that the hinges of the valves were still joined. 

 We also found two small pieces of wood about five 

 inches long, which appeared as if they might have 

 been cut artificially, but shortly afterwards two logs of 

 drift timber were found, from which they had evidently 

 become detached.' 



The rapid elevation of the shores of Grinnell Land 

 illustrates in a remarkable degree how powerful is the 

 agency of the heavy Polar ice in raising banks of mud 

 and gravel in lines parallel with the coast. Wherever 

 points of land stretch seaward into water of moderate 

 depth, lines of grounded floebergs mark very distinctly 

 where they and their predecessors have pushed up 

 ridges on the bottom as they were forced on shore. 

 Where two points are near neighbours the banks 

 continue to increase with the elevation of the land, 

 and eventually produce a bar, which extends from 

 point to point and forms a sheltered bay, into which 

 the heavy Polar ice can no longer be forced. Year 

 after year the mountain torrents, charged with mud 

 and debris, continue to fill up this protected bay, 

 which, from the continuous elevation of the land, 

 becomes at last converted into a lake. In course of 

 time, after the lake has become silted up, the ancient 



