574 KEroRT — 1889. 



ice-covering extends throughout Greenland from coast to coast, notwithstanding 

 that nobody bad seen tbe boundaries of the ' ice-desert.' He even believed ' that 

 it in most cases is a physical impossibility that the interior of a large continent 

 should be completely covered with ice under the climatic circumstances which 

 occur on our planet south of 80° latitude.' As to the interior of Greenland, he says 

 that it is even easy to prove that the conditions for the forming of glaciers cannot 

 occur there, if the surface of the land does not gradually and regularly rise from 

 the east coast as well as from the west coast towards the centre. But, in Nor- 

 denskiold's opinion, no continent orographically known on our earth has such a 

 shape. Greenland he correctly supposes to have an orographical structure very 

 much like Scandinavia, and, let us also say, like Scotland — that is, it consists of 

 mountain ranges and peaks, separated by deep valleys and plains, and in such a 

 country most of the rain and snow must fall in the neighbourhood of the coasts, 

 whilst only dry and warm winds reach the interior, so that there cannot be moisture 

 enoujjh to form a glacier here. 



I will not here criticise Nordenskiold's theories. The expedition from which I 

 have just returned has, in my opinion, fully proved that they cannot be right as 

 far as concerns Greenland. It has, I believe, settled the fact that this part of 

 Greenland is not only ice- and snow-clad, but has a mighty shield-shaped covering 

 of snow and ice, under which mountains as well as valleys have quite disappeared, 

 and where you cannot even trace the configuration of the land and mountains. 

 Whether this is also the case in the most northern parts of Greenland I dare not 

 yet say ; this must be decided by a new expedition, and I think the question to be 

 of the highest interest. At present we will only consider the southern parts of 

 Greenland. 



The ice-covering has here, as already mentioned, the shape of a shield. Rather 

 rapidly, but regularly, it rises from the east coast, reaches a height of 9,000 to 

 10,000 feet, is rather flat and even in the middle, and falls again regularly towards 

 the west coast. 



Considering this peculiar and regular shape of the ice, the first question which 

 must force itself upon us is. What has occasioned this regular shape ? AVhat is the 

 configuration of the laud underneath ? 



I have heard geologists say that, judging from what has been observed by us, it 

 is clear that Greenland is a tableland only, the exterior parts of which are exca- 

 vated by the glaciers, so that fjords and valleys are formed, whilst the interior 

 evidently has the shape of a high plateau, where no considerable valleys or moun- 

 tains can be present, there being no glaciers to excavate the ground. But I think 

 this conclusion is entirely false. I think that the shape of the surface of the inland 

 ice is not at all caused by the configuration of the land underneath. 



In the interior of Greenland there must be mountains and valleys, as well as 

 near the coast. That there are on the coasts deep fjords and lofty mountains very 

 like those of western Norway, and that they have just the same wild and prominent 

 character in some places, we already know ; they are perhaps even wilder than I 

 ever saw them in my own country. 



If we entertain the opinion that these fjords are excavated by the ice, we must 

 also conclude that the same ice has been able to excavate valleys and to form moun- 

 tains in the interior of the continent, although at a smaller degree. To this subject 

 I shall, however, return a little later. I think, therefore, that we have no right to 

 seek the reason of the shield-like shape of the ice in the conKguration of the land 

 underneath; the surface of the ice must have a shape of its own, which is given not 

 by tbe land but by the meteorological circumstances. Nobody can deny that the 

 ice must in some places be of an enormous thickness, as it fills the valleys and covers 

 up all the mountains, and its thickness must evidently be regulated by the quantity 

 of snow falling. This quantity must be largest towards the coasts, gradually 

 diminishing towards the interior; it is consequently very likely that the ice has not 

 its greatest thickness just in the middle of the continent, but rather on both sides 

 towards the coasts. We might thus already a ^rwrt have expected to find the ice 

 of a shape like that observed. 



The surface of the snow-field in the interior is quite even and as it were polished. 



