GLACIAL STUDIES IN GREENLAND. 217, 
gestion that sprang from the phenomenon was that the film of 
ice had frozen during the preceding night, and that the falling 
away of the water beneath represented the amount of absorption 
of the glacier in the interval, say ten or twelve hours. The sig- 
nificance of this as indicating the facility with which a glacier 
drinks up water on the surface became obvious, and the desira- 
bility of making direct observations upon the wells to determine 
this was fully appreciated, but the demands of other lines of 
work and the distance from headquarters of wells suitable for the 
observations, rendered this impracticable. In another way, how- 
ever, the suggestions of the phenomenon were in a measure 
verified. It was observed that whenever thawing was checked 
by cold weather, it was quite promptly followed by the entire 
disappearance of the water from the wells. On my first visit to 
the main ice cap, northeast of Bowdoin Bay, August 7, the 
surface was saturated with water and the wells were full. On 
my second visit, on August 10, water was observed only in the 
ravines into which it had gathered from considerable areas. 
The surface was then covered with six inches of fresh snow, and 
special search was not made to determine the presence or 
absence of water in the wells and the observation was unsatisfac- 
tory. On my third visit, August 18, very diligent search was 
made and no water whatever found in even the largest and 
deepest of the wells, and these were here of considerable dimen- 
sions. It therefore appeared quite certain that the water that 
was melted upon the surface was absorbed with considerable 
rapidity into the glacier. Doubtless this descends into its depths. 
The percentage of the product of melting that is thus absorbed 
and the rapidity with which it descends into the greater depths 
are certainly matters of much interest and obviously invite investi- 
gation. 
The dust in the wells is quite certainly of terrestrial origin, 
in the main, at least. -In some instances fragments of shale 
were discernible with the naked eye. 
The drainage of the Igloodahomyne glacier presents a depart- 
ure from the method prevalent in Alpine glaciers, though it is 
