886 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 
which were floating, carried lateral moraines containing shells 
worked up from the bay bottom. In one case they were fully 
thirty feet above sea level. Phenomena of similar import, so 
far as glacier motion is concerned, were seen at many points, 
but never in any position except at the immediate edges or ends 
of glaciers. 
In the same general locality there was another interesting 
phenomenon on some of the islands, and occasionally on the 
coast of the mainland. Even where the summits of islands were 
wholly free from snow, several places were seen where their 
lower slopes had perennial ice-caps reaching down to the water, 
and even appearing to be thickest at that level. This appeared 
to be the result primarily of the excessive local accumulation of 
snow, under the influence of the wind. Lodging against lee 
slopes, it had reached such thicknesses as to defy the sun. In 
several places, some of them on islands and some of them on 
the mainland, the accumulation had gone so far as to give rise 
to glaciers. That the ice was actually in motion was evinced by 
its structure, and by the débris which it carried. 
Under these circumstances, it was difficult at many points to 
determine the altitude of the snow line, but on the narrow 
promontory just back of Cape York a satisfactory determination 
was made, giving the snow line an elevation of about 1000 feet 
(aneroid measurement). The ice-cap yielding this result is an 
isolated one, having an area of no more than five or six square 
miles. It would seem that the lowness of the snow line here 
must be the result of local meteorological conditions. There 
can be little doubt that the snowfall at Cape York is exceedingly 
heavy, since the small ice-cap referred to has a glacial discharge 
altogether out of keeping with its area. It feeds two active 
glaciers, one of which is considerably more than a mile in 
width, and both of which descend to the level of the sea, dis- 
charging small bergs. 
North of Melville Bay the snow line is much higher. In 
the vicinity of Inglefield Gulf it averages fully 2000 feet, and in 
many places it rises as high as 2200 or 2300 feet. Accompany- 
