52 LAUGE KOCH 



broad melting zone. Numerous large rivers and many lakes are 

 formed, and locally, crevasses. Beyond the altitudinal conditions 

 the marginal zone shows few similarities to the marginal zone of 

 north Greenland and, on the whole, the conditions are unfavorable 

 to travelers, summer making itself much felt far into the ice cap. 



III. THE FORMATION OF ICEBERGS 



Now having considered the surface of the inland ice, let us turn 

 to its glaciers and their products, the icebergs. 



Sailing northward along the west coast of Greenland, we shall, 

 as a rule, meet the first bergs near JuHanshaab. Sometimes they 

 are numerous when derived from the east coast, but they may be 

 scarce or entirely lacking. From Frederikshaab as far as to 

 Egedesminde icebergs are rare. Around Disko, however, they 

 abound in great numbers and from there on they are of common 

 occurrence until Cape York has been passed. Here they suddenly 

 decrease in number, and north of 80° N. lat. they entirely disappear. 

 This circumstance alone shows that the formation of bergs does 

 not take place along the entire edge of the inland ice, and if we look 

 more closely into the case it becomes evident that the greater part 

 of the bergs of west Greenland originate from only a few glaciers 

 but these are exceedingly productive. 



Along the entire coast from JuHanshaab to Egedesminde the 

 production of bergs is quite insignificant. Almost all the glaciers 

 of the inland ice push down into the head of long narrow fiords and 

 many of the fiords are so shallow at the head that no bergs can be 

 formed. Not until about 69° N. lat. do the bergs occur in any 

 great number, and there we find Greenland's most productive 

 glaciers. The greatest output of bergs no doubt comes from the 

 glacier in the so-called ice fiord at Jacobshavn, but also the Torsu- 

 kalak and Garajag glaciers are exceedingly productive.^ From these 

 three glaciers, which are situated within the compass of one and 

 a half degrees of latitude, proceed nearly all the bergs in Disko 

 Bay and Northeast Bay. Only a few are formed along the coast 

 north of the Garajag Glacier. Both Upernivik's and Gieseke's 



^ "The united great glaciers, pouring dovra to the Karrat Tafiord at 71° 45' N. lat., 

 are, without doubt, as productive as the Garajag Glacier at the southern corner of 

 Northeast Bay." — Morten P. PorsUd. 



