CONDITIONS OF THEIR FORMATION 1/7 



is limited to the regions which were during the last glacial 

 epoch occupied by long-enduring ice, as is indicated by the 

 existence there of drift material, such as glaciers alone could 

 form and transport, and by the characteristic scorings on the 

 rock surfaces which glaciation alone can cause. This approxi- 

 mate coincidence between the field occupied by glaciers and 

 the shores abounding in fiords is of itself sufficient to raise 

 the presumption that this fretting of the shore is due to ice 

 action. This presumption is strengthened by the fact that 

 the fiords are deepest and of most characteristic form in those 

 parts of the world where we may fairly suppose the glacial 

 sheet to have been the thickest and to have remained active 

 for the longest time. Thus in Scandinavia and Scotland, in 

 Greenland. Labrador, and Alaska, in the extreme southern 

 part of South America, and in New Zealand, the fiord struc- 

 ture is greatly developed, while in the parts of those fields 

 which, though somewhat glaciated, lie in latitudes nearer the 

 equator the fiords are carved to no great depth. In other 

 words, where the ice was thick and abided long the pecuHar 

 carving of the land characteristic of the well-developed fiords 

 was the greatest, while in the regions in wliicli the ice action 

 was relatively weak the valleys were excavated to a much less 

 depth. 



We furthermore note the fact that the form of surface 

 which along the coast-line gives rise to fiords is not peculiar 

 to the shore lands. It extends back for an indefinite distance 

 into the interior of the land in the latitude in which these 

 frineed shores occur. In a less distinct wav it is also con- 

 tinned for some distance seaward beyond the present margin 

 of the water. In other words, the fiord belt is not due to 

 some peculiar action which has taken place along the existing 



