22 WHAT IS THE INTERIOR OF GREENLAND? 



pillar — a waterfall still greater than that just described. We were 

 mistaken : only a smaller, though, nevertheless, tolerably copious, 

 river rushed down from the azure cliffs, to a depth from which no 

 splashes rebounded to the mouth of the fall : but there arose instead, 

 from another smaller hole in the ice, in the immediate vicinity, an 

 intermittent jet of water mixed with air, which, carried hither and 

 thither by the wind, wetted the surrounding cliffs with its spray. 

 We had, then, here, in the midst of the desert of inland ice, a 

 fountain, as far as we could judge from descriptions, very like the 

 Geysers, which in Iceland are produced by volcanic heat. 



" In order, if possible, to avoid the district of the rocks, which, on 

 our journey out had required so much patience and exertion, we 

 had, on returning, chosen a more northerly route, intending to 

 endeavour to descend from the ice-ridge up on the slip of ice-free 

 land which lies between the inland ice and Disco Bay. The ice 

 was here, with the exception of a few ice-hillocks of a few feet 

 high, in most places as even as a floor, but often crossed by very- 

 large and dangerous clefts, and we were so fortunate as immediately 

 to hit upon a place where the inclination towards the land was 

 inconsiderable, so that one might have driven up a four-in-hand. 

 The remainder of the way along the land was harder, partly on 

 account of the very uneven nature of the ground, and partly on 

 account of the numerous glacier-streams which we had to wade 

 through, with the water far above our boots. At last, at a little 

 distance from the tent, we came to a glacier-stream, full of muddy 

 water, so large that, after several failures, we were obliged to 

 abandon the hope of finding a fordable place. We were, therefore, 

 obliged to climb high up again on the shining ice, so as to be able 

 to find our way down again further on, after passing the river ; 

 but the descent on this occasion was more difficult than before." 



9. What is the Interior of Greenland ? — It may seem a paradox when 

 I say that so far as we can draw any conclusions from the observa- 

 tions on the short journeys into the country described in the fore- 

 going pages, Greenland has no Interior ! At least if we look upon 

 its interior in the light of something else than ice and snow. Solid 

 land or rock there is none now to be seen. All that we know of it 

 ! shows it to be "a waste and weary land where no man comes, or 

 I hath come, since the making of the world." The country seems 

 only a circlet of islands separated from one another by deep fjords 

 or straits, and bound together on the landward side by the great 

 ice-covering which overlies the whole interior, and which is pour- 

 ing out its overflow into the sea in the shape of glaciers and ice- 

 bergs. No doubt, under this ice there lies land, just as it lies under 



