32 THE INTERIOR ICE-FIELD OF GREENLAND. 



However, where it does not reach the sea, it is often possible to 

 climb on it from the land by a gentle slope, or even in some cases 

 to step up on it as it shelves up. Once fairly on the inland ice a 

 dreary scene meets the view. Far as the eye can reach to the 

 north and to the south is this same great ice-field, the only thing 

 to relieve the eye being the winding black circuit of the coast-line 

 land or islands before described, here and there infringing in little 

 peninsulas on the ice, there the ice dovetailing in the form of a 

 glacier on the land, and now and then the waters of a deep fjord 

 penetrating into the ice-field, its circuit marked by the black line of 

 coast surrounding it on either side, the eastern generally being the 

 ice-wall of the glacier, the western being the sea. Travelling a 

 short distance on this interior ice, it seems as if we were travelling 

 on the sea. The land begins to fade away behind us like the shore 

 receding as we sail out to sea ; while far away to the eastward 

 nought can be seen but a dim, clear outline like the horizon bound- 

 ing our view. The ice rises by a gentle slope, the gradient being 

 steeper at first, but gradually getting almost imperceptible thou»h 

 real. In the winter and spring this ice-field must be covered with 

 a deep blanket of snow, and the surface must then be smooth as a 

 glassy lake ; but in the summer, by the melting of the snow, it is 

 covered with pools and coursing streams of icy-cold water, which 

 either find their way over the edge, or tumble with a hollow sound 

 through the deep crevasses in the ice. How deep these crevasses go, 

 it is impossible to say, as we could not see to the bottom of them, 

 nor did the sounding-cord reach down except a short way. The 

 depth of the ice-covering will of course vary ; when it lies over a 

 valley it will be deeper, over a mountain-top less. All we know is, 

 that just now it is almost level throughout, hill and dale making 

 no difference. However, with such a huge superincumbent mass 

 of ice, the average height of the coast-lying islands is greater than 

 that of the inland ice, and it is only after climbing considerable 

 heights that it can be seen. 1 Therefore supposing this covering to 

 be removed, I think the country would look like a huge, shallow, 

 oblong vessel with high walla around it. The surface of the ice is 

 ridged and furrowed after the manner of glaciers generally ; and 



have arisen from the translator of Dr. Rink's abstract in the ' Journ. Royal Geog. 

 Soc.,' I. c, having mistaken the word "ice-stream" for "ice-steps." The "ice- 

 steps," or " platform," so universally described by the authors who have followed 

 the translation of Dr. Rink's remarks, have no existence in nature, or in the 

 writings of the eminent geographer mentioned. 



1 In Rink's ' GroulancT,' ii. p. 2, are two characteristic views of the appearance 

 of the interior ice seen from such elevations. 



