62 LAUGE KOCH 



land and on both the west and east coasts north of 70° N. lat. 

 Large fiords, in other words, are found exactly where the country 

 is high, and as the country gradually becomes lower the fiords 

 gradually become smaller. It will be seen, however, that even 

 deep fiords suddenly disappear near the edge of the inland ice. 

 The largest fiord complexes of the world, Scoresby Sound, Franz 

 Joseph Fiord, and Northeast Bay, practically speaking, do not 

 influence the surface of the inland ice at all. It must, therefore, 

 be supposed that all these fiords are of very late origin and that the 

 erosion is as yet in only a slightly advanced stage. 



VI. THE ORIGIN OF THE DEPRESSION 



By means of the altitudes shown on the maps, I have indicated, 

 above, evidences for a depression right across Greenland, and I have 

 then attempted to give a comprehensive view of our present knowl- 

 edge of the elevation, surface, and iceberg production of the inland 

 ice of Greenland. Further, I have attempted to divide Greenland 

 into large geographical and geological elements, and, finally, I 

 have indicated a division of the Greenland fiords. 



All this is grouped about facts which lead to conclusions 

 which anyone with a knowledge of conditions in Greenland may 

 draw for himself. In entering now upon some questions of a more 

 hypothetical kind, it is not without a certain hesitation, as I am 

 by no means blind to the fact that our knowledge of Greenland is 

 as yet too deficient to warrant entering into detail. I shall, how- 

 ever, attempt to point out some of the questions whose solution is 

 reserved for the future, and try to indicate on what lines I believe 

 that some of the questions will be answered— in short, point out 

 some of the main features of some of the numerous geographical 

 and geological questions that are still unsolved in Greenland. 



The time of the formation of the depression cannot be stated 

 with certainty. We have an indication in the fact that the basalts 

 seem to be connected with the depression; but to infer from this 

 that it was formed in the Tertiary period would be too hasty a 

 conclusion, since it is conceivable that the depression — this division 

 of Greenland into two parts — may date farther back and may have 

 determined the direction of the great Atlantic basalt fissure. A 



