GEACTALE  STRODILES INN G Tota NLSAUN DD: 203 
reveals its second great feature—an upper plane, dominating the 
higher land and constituting it a very pronounced plateau. We 
may recail that in a previous sketch of the topography of the 
coast to the southward, it was observed that though somewhat 
varying, it takes on a prevailing mountainous character. Indeed, 
I think that all descriptions of the ice-free belt of West Green- 
land represent it as mountainous, and these descriptions are fully 
justified so far as the region south of Melville Bay is concerned. 
Fortunately a new phase is assumed in this more northerly region. 
Fic. 17.—General view of the central portion of the south face of Redcliff 
Peninsula, introduced here especially to illustrate the non-mountainous plateau upon 
which the ice cap develops. The ice edge is about 2000 feet above and three miles 
back from the Gulf. Bryant glacier, at the right, is a typical ice tongue descending 
from the ice cap through one of the broader and deeper valleys. It will be described 
in detail farther on. The plateau face is here formed of the sandstone and shale 
series described above; but the Bryant glacier brings down débris from the pinkish 
gray sandstone and the crystalline series. 
Here we have a pronounced plateau without bordering mountains. 
The few points about the head of the Gulf that are called moun- 
tains rise only a few hundred feet above the plateau, and would 
be altogether negligiblein a really mountainous region. This upper 
plane lies about 2000 feet above the sea level. Along a portion 
of the coast there is a precipitous rise from the water to this 
plane. In other portions, and these have much greater extent, 
