THE GREENLAND EXPEDITION OF 7895. 883 
ice-cap moved forward unequally, advancing farther from its 
present position at one point in one epoch, and at another point 
in another. Opportunity was wanting to carry observations suf- 
ficiently far to place this suggestion on a firm basis of fact. 
General disposition of snow and ice. Nowhere on the west 
coast of Greenland between the latitude where land was first 
sighted (64° 27’) and 69° was the main ice-cap seen from the 
Kite, along a course five to fifteen miles off shore. Ata few 
points only, what appeared to be local ice-caps or local snow 
fields came into view. In one or two places between 66° and 
67° there depended from these local snow fields what appeared 
in the distance to be incipient glaciers. In other places local 
snow fields were seen of such size that they can hardly fail to 
give rise to small glaciers, though from our position they were 
not seen. 
At many points along this coast, as seen in July, there were 
considerable patches of snow, generally occupying ravines, which 
seemed to be the unmelted remnants of considerable drifts. 
These occurred at all altitudes, even down to the level of the 
sea. Many of the patches of snow were of such size and thick- 
ness that it was quite certain that they would hold over until the 
succeeding winter. They were in all cases apparently due to 
excessive local accumulation by the wind, and do not in any 
way indicate the altitude of the snowline in these latitudes. The 
height of the snow line was not determined here, but it is prob- 
ably not less than 2000 feet, and may be somewhat higher. 
North of latitude 68° 30’ the ice-cap appears to approach 
the coast much more closely than farther south, but even here 
its edge is so distant and so related to ice-free lands (often 
islands) in front of it, as not to be generally seen from the open 
sea. From a point a few miles back of Jakobshavn (lat. 69°), 
the glacier which bears that name, and the ice-cap beyond, were 
distinctly seen. Between latitudes 69° and 70° the main ice-cap 
to the east was now and then seen, either at the head of fjords, 
or where the coastal topography permitted an unusually unob- 
structed view to the eastward. North of Prince Island, the end 
