82 EDITORIAL 



their bearing upon two general hypotheses of wide interest ; the 

 one, that the ice-cap of Greenland formerly stretched across 

 Baffins Bay and Davis Strait and became the source of the main- 

 land ice-sheet ; the other, that, in a former supposed state of 

 elevation, the ice-cap pushed out into the heart of Baffins Bay 

 or into the Atlantic until it reached adequate conditions of wast- 

 age by flotation or by low-level extension. In either case, the 

 borderland of Greenland must, presumably, have been effect- 

 ively glaciated for a long period, and should manifest this in the 

 subjugation of its topographic contours. In its bearings upon 

 these general problems, an advance of a few miles, more or less, 

 an ineffectual overtopping of a few heights, more or less, are 

 relatively inconsequential. Our language is to be interpreted in 

 the light of the major questions whose solution we sought. 



There does not appear, however, to be any essential lack of 

 harmony between the data of Professors Barton and Tarr and 

 the interpretations of Professor Salisbury and myself, unless 

 it be in relatively unimportant details. Professor Salisbury makes 

 the following statement relative to the region (this Journal, 

 Vol. III., pp. 876-7): 



On the whole, judging from topography alone, it seemed more probable 

 that the coast from about latitude 70° north to the end of the Nugsuak penin- 

 sula [the southern one] had not been recently smothered in ice, though it is 

 well possible that the ice-cap may have once extended beyond its present 

 limits, and that isolated glaciers occupied the valleys leading down to the sea. 

 The northwest end of the peninsula bears the marks of the passage of ice 

 over a considerable part of the coastal front. North of Nugsuak peninsula, 

 and from that point to the south side of Melville Bay, the topography of the 

 coast, so far as seen, indicated general, though not universal, glaciation. 

 Thus the southwestern end of Svarten Huk peninsula (71° 30') has a topog- 

 raphy denoting the absence of glaciation. 



This embraces both of the districts in question. 



Relative to the region of Professor Barton's studies, I made 

 the following (unpublished) note on July 18, 1894, at the con- 

 clusion of detailed notes on Hare island, the Nugsuak peninsula, 

 (the one south of Umanak fiord), Ubekyendt and Upernivik 

 islands, Svarten Huk peninsula, and Disco Island : 



