THE INTERIOR ICE-FIELD OF GREENLAND. 



this furrowing does not decrease as we go further inland ; on the 

 contrary, as far as our limited means of observation go, it seems to 

 increase ; so that even were it possible to cross this vast icy-desert 

 on dog-sledges when the snow is on the ground, I do not think it 

 would be possible to return, and its exploration would require the 

 aid of a ship on the other side. On its surface there appears not a 

 trace pf any living thing except a minute alga ; and after leaving 

 the little outpouring offshoot of a glacier from it, the dreariness of 

 the scene is not relieved by even the sight of a patch of earth, a 

 stone, or aught belonging to the world we seem to have left behind. 

 Once, and only once, during our attempt to explore this waste did 

 I see a faint red streak, which showed the existence of the red snow- 

 plant (Protococcus nivalis) ; but even this was before the land had 

 been fairly left. A few traces of other alga were seen by Dr. Berg- 

 gren, as I have already intimated (pp. 1 9 and 24). Animal life seems 

 to have left the vicinity ; and the chilliness of the afternoon breeze, 

 which regularly blew with piercing bitterness over the ice-wastes, 

 even caused the Eskimo dogs to couch under the lee of the sledge, 

 and made us, their masters, draw the fur hoods of our coats higher 

 about our ears. 1 Whether this ice-field is continuous from north to 

 south it is not possible in the present state of our knowledge to 

 decide ; but most likely it is so. Whether its longitudinal range is 

 continuous is more difficult to decide, though the explorers already 

 mentioned saw nothing to the eastward to break their view; *o 

 that, as I shall immediately discuss, there seems every probability 

 that in Greenland there is one continuous unbroken level field of 

 ice, swaddling up in its snowy winding-sheet hill and valley, with- 

 out a single break for upwards of 1200 miles 2 of latitude, and an 

 average of 400 miles of longitude, or from Cape Farewell to the 

 upper extremity of Smith Sound, and from the west coast of 

 Greenland to the east coast of the same country, a stretch of ice- 

 covered country infinitely greater than ever was demanded hypo- 

 thetically by Agassiz in support of his glacier-theory. 



2. Tlie Dejiuents of this Inland Ice-field. — Are there any ranges of 

 mountains from the slopes of which this great interior ice descends? 

 As I have said, we are not. in a position to absolutely decide ; but 



1 For description of the effects of the ieo in limiting animal and vegetable life 

 vide the author's " Mammalian Fauna of Greenland," ' Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 

 1868,' p. 337 ; and " Florida Discoana," ' Trans. Bot. Sue. Edin.,' vol, ix. p. 440. 



2 Kink, ' Journ. R. (J. S.' 1. c, says 800 miles; but throughout, his valuable 

 works he only speaks of the Danish portion of Greenland, of which it professes 

 solely to be a description. Jatnieson and other writers seem to think that it is 

 only North Greenland that, is covered. All the country, north ami south, is 

 equally swathed in ice. 



