ABSTRACTS 9 1 



peculiarly shaped pinnacle furnished a point of observation. This 

 was found to move during the same time a distance of 236 feet or 

 about 19 feet per day. 



This was the only case in which the actual rate of motion was 

 determined. The Itlvdliarsuk, three miles in width, was crevassed 

 completely to the shore margin so that it could not be traversed 

 with any safety, and no attempt was made to determine the rate of the 

 smaller ones. Neither of these large glaciers carry any detritus either 

 superglacial or englacial, except in the case of the Itivdliarsuk. Small 

 nunataks near its source furnish two medial moraines which can be 

 traced nearly throughout its length on the surface but are largely 

 incorporated as englacial material before reaching the terminus. 

 The edge of the larger glaciers like that of the inland ice is almost 

 always nearly vertical with a height of from ten to forty. The struc- 

 ture is distinctly banded usually, apparently due to a shearing of the 

 upper portions over the under from the central portions of the stream 

 shoreward, the layers being inclined away from the shore. 



Lateral streams flowing along the margin often cut caverns into the 

 ice by means of which opportunity is furnished to study subglacial 

 action. Small bowlders caught between larger ones or between a 

 larger one and a projecting ledge are often broken into small frag- 

 ments or ground to powder. In the case of rapid motion of the ice, 

 distinct vacant spaces are left between the lee of a boss of rock and the 

 ice, but where the motion is slow the ice is kept pressed against the lee 

 side of the boss taking on a fanlike structure as it is pressed downward. 



Lateral moraines along the sides of the glaciers are always present. 

 They consist of a mixture of angular, subangular and rounded frag- 

 ments, usually with considerable sand and a little clay, and occasionally 

 largely made up almost entirely of till- like material. 



From the edge of the inland ice and also from the detached ice- 

 caps of the Nugsuak peninsula a large number of smaller glaciers 

 descend the more or less narrow gorges, some reaching sea level and 

 discharging icebergs, but the majority terminating from 100 to 1000 

 feet above the sea. The gradient of descent varies strongly in the 

 various ones. In some it is very steep, in some very gentle, while many 

 have a great change in various portions of their own length. 



With two exceptions all the glaciers show evidence of diminu- 

 tion in len;j^th and depth, in older terminal moraines and glaciated 

 surfaces farther down the valleys and older lateral moraines higher up 

 the sides. 



