1898-1902. No. 16.] FLOW. PLANTS AND FERNS OF N.-W. GREENLAND. 9 



So far as can be gathered from the literature at present available, 

 there are hardly any deposits of an extent worth noting, that are due 

 to glacial action in former times. Indeed, there are very few indications 

 from which an opinion may be formed, especially concerning the north- 

 ern parts of our area; but I think I may be allowed to conclude from 

 them, that the same holds true for this region as SCHEI says in his 

 Prel. Rep. Geol., p. 9, about Ellesmereland: "there are no materials lying 

 on those parts of the country that are not now glaciated that could, with 

 any probability, be considered to result from the action of glaciers/' 



Indeed, the map showing the extent of glaciation in America, which 

 accompanies chapter XLI in GEIKIE, The Great Ice Age, Ed. 3, gives the 

 north-western part of the land a complete covering of ice. I am at a 

 loss to understand why the author of that chapter, Professor T. C. CHAM- 

 BERLIN, has presumed that the inland ice has reached so far, the more 

 so as he has not drawn the entire Arctic Archipelago ice-covered, as it 

 is in older maps. It would, of course, be of no small interest to know 

 if such an ice sheet ever existed, as then every species of the present 

 flora must have immigrated in post-glacial time. I am most inclined 

 to think, indeed, that hardly any higher plants have lived there during 

 the maximum of glaciation, but still I look upon the existence of ice- 

 free land as probable, even if perhaps much larger glaciers have pro- 

 truded into the fjords. The geological map of DAWSON gives no enlight- 

 enment about the existence of glacial deposits, and no geological explor- 

 ation has been made north of Smith Sound since the time of the NARES 

 expedition. 



About the present extension of the ice-sheet also, there are different 

 statements. The new danish map shows in several points the ice-border 

 further west than, for instance, it is shown in the english Admiralty 

 Chart and the maps from which that is compiled. In all probability, how- 

 ever, the ice-free land in most parts of N. W. Greenland is rather broad, 

 and consequently affords room for the development of vegetation inland 

 also. As to the approximate extent of the ice-free, habitable land, it is, 

 of course, impossible to form an opinion at present 



Another factor of great importance is to be found in the climate 

 of the region and especially in the amount of yearly precipitation. Con- 

 cerning this, however, there is but little to be found in the existing 

 literature. The results obtained in the adjacent Ellesmereland by the 

 expeditions of NARES, GREELY and ourselves may, however, together 

 with what is to be found in the publications about the voyages of KANE, 

 HAYES and HALL, enable us to form the conclusion that the amount of 



