882 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 
at their bases, greeted the view. Rarely is the contrast between 
the lee and stoss sides of hills so clearly marked. 
Apart from its topography, the surface of the rock near 
Jakobshavn was found to be in striking contrast with that at 
Holstensborg. Instead of being decayed, it was remarkable for 
its freshness, especially at elevations of a few hundred feet and a 
few miles inland. For the first few miles from the coast striz 
were often seen, but they were also often wanting. Four or five 
miles inland, and from that point eastward to the limit of the 
land seen, it was the exception not to find the rock polished, and 
still retaining the grooves and fine lines due to the graving of 
the ice in all their pristine freshness, even where its surface has 
been continuously exposed since the departure of the ice. The 
surface was such as to give the impression that it had but just 
been freed from the ice which had polished it. 
The bareness of the rock was one of the most striking char- 
acteristics of the peninsular surface. It is probably safe to say 
that half the surface seen in a jaunt of fifty miles is absolutely 
without soil or loose material of any sort whatsoever; that half 
of the remainder hasa mantle of loose material, averaging less 
than two feet in depth ; while the remaining fourth has sufficient 
drift to effectually conceal the rock. 
The contrast presented by the rock at Holstensborg and 
Jakobshavn, both in the matter of topography and freshness of 
surface, was repeated at other points further north, seeming to 
indicate that the glaciated surfaces now free from ice along the 
west shore of Greenland have been free for very unequal periods 
of time. In some places the surface seems to have been but 
just abandoned, while in other cases, even where the evidence of 
severe glaciation is equally conclusive, the surface seems to have 
been exposed to the influence of weathering for a much longer 
period of time. This leads to the conclusion that the ice-cap of 
Greenland did not suffer its greatest extension at all points at the 
same time. It is quite harmonious with the theory, though in 
itself does not prove it, that there have been distinct epochs of 
ice extension (perhaps distinct glacial epochs) during which the 
