GLACIAL OBSERVATIONS. 163 



Due reflection upon the facts, and upon the forces in 

 operation adapted to their production, will, however, fur- 

 nish a satisfactory and adequate exjilanation. The flowing, 

 graceful outline of the Labrador coast is the result of the hor- 

 izontal erosion effected by such a rigid force as is furnished 

 by an ice-sheet slowly moving over the surface and planing it 

 down to a comparative level, while the coast of Greenland 

 shows the signs of having been sculptured predominantly by 

 the action of water and other sub-aerial agencies, rather than 

 by an all-enveloping ice-sheet ; for water erodes mainly in 

 vertical sections, wearing deep, narrow channels at frequent 

 intervals, leaving masses of land between the channels to be 

 gradually worn by frost and wind and rain into the sharp, 

 needle-like peaks characteristic of most high altitudes. 



At first thought it seems improbable that the scenery 

 on the coast of Labrador should betray the sculpturing 

 power of a glacial ice-sheet more clearly than the coast of 

 Greenland does, and the fact is of great significance ; for 

 there are no extensive glaciers in Labrador at present, while in 

 southern Greenland great glaciers come down to the head of all 

 the fiords, and some of them, as near Frederickshaab and Suk- 

 kertoppen, reach almost to the open sea ; and everywhere the 

 borders of a vast inland ice-sheet, thousands of feet in thick- 

 ness, are met from fifteen to sixty miles back from the ocean. 

 The question therefore arises with great force. Why is the 

 scenery of the coast of Labrador more characteristically gla- 

 cial than that of Greenland ? The answer may best be given 

 in a general statement arrived at by a number of separate in- 

 ferences. Labrador was once more completely enveloped by 

 ice than Greenland has ever been. The border of Greenland 

 has probably never been completely covered by ice. However 

 great the former extension of the glaciers, they were never 

 confluent near the border of the sea, but flowed outwards in 

 the separate channels now marked oy the deep fiords, and 



