NEW PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF GREENLAND 55 



line of demarcation can be drawn between the sea ice and the glacier. 

 The sea ice in the fiord moves with the glacier almost as far as to 

 the mouth of the fiord, forms fissures, and pushes moraines over 

 projecting headlands or islands in the fiord. If such a fiord is for 

 some reason or other emptied of its ice, numerous floes are formed 

 which may rise from one to several meters above the water. Such 

 floes which, if they are very thick, may thus form actual bergs, are 

 known from Nare's expedition as " Paleocrystic Ice." In the 

 mouth of Robeson Channel they are very common. They are 

 formed in many of the fiords along the north coast of Greenland 

 and Grant Land. The largest Greenland glacier of this kind is 

 the Ostenfeld Glacier in Victoria Fiord. 



The glaciers of the east coast have been much less studied 

 than those of the west coast. From Germania Land to, and 

 including, Scoresby Sound, all the glaciers of the inland ice terminate 

 in the heads of deep fiords, and few of them produce bergs in any 

 number worth mentioning. The southern part of the east coast, 

 on the other hand, has several fairly productive glaciers. According 

 to the Eskimos, the largest and most productive glacier is found 

 in Kangerdlugssuag Fiord in 68° N. lat. 



It is evident then that icebergs are not formed in extreme 

 northern Greenland. Further it is seen that the bergs along the 

 west coast proceed chiefly from three'' large glaciers around 70° N. 

 lat. and along the east coast around 68° N. lat. 



// we look at Figure 4 we shall see that the productive glaciers both 

 on the east and west coasts are situated exactly at the ends of the great 

 depression across the inland ice. The two centers of glaciation press 

 the ice into the depression which has its outlet chiefly to the west (where 

 there is no basalt under the ice) through the Jacobshavn, Torsukatak, 

 and Garajag (Karaiac) glaciers, and to a somewhat less degree to the 

 east through Kangerdlugssuag. 



IV. THE OROGRAPHIC ELEMENTS OE GREENLAND 



The provisional geological survey of Greenland having been 

 ended in 191 7, I shall now make an attempt, based on our present 

 knowledge, to divide the country into large orographic elements, an 



^ See footnote i, page 52. 



