58 ERNEST DeKOVEN LEFFINGWELL 



canyons into the ice by means of which its presence can be traced thirty 

 to forty feet back from the face of the cHff. About thirty yards back, 

 near the winter quarters, the writer found nearly pure fresh water 

 ice, after digging through one foot of soil, and the same amount of 

 frozen clay. It is the intention of the expedition to obtain their 

 winter's supply of fresh water by sinking a shaft down into this ice, 

 at the same time learning something further as to its thickness and 

 constitution. 



Its frequent exposure along the chffs and its presence some dis- 

 tance inland, points to the presumption that the ground-ice formation 

 underlies the whole island. As is the rule in arctic regions, the 

 ground remains permanently frozen to an unknown depth. Only the 

 upper foot or two thaw out during the short summer. At Point 

 Barrow, Lieutenant Ray dug over thirty-five feet down without pene- 

 trating the frozen layer. At the bottom a temperature of 1 2° F. was 

 held for months. This being the case, it is easily understood how a 

 body of ice, once covered with a few feet of soil, would endure a very 

 long time in the Arctic regions. Practically the only way such an 

 island as this can be destroyed, is by wave-cutting at the sides and the 

 consequent direct exposure of the ice to the sun. This is taking 

 place very rapidly on the seaward side, as freshly fallen blocks of 

 peat and ice show. 



Good exposures show a mass of clean ice with an occasional dis- 

 colored band running haphazard across it. There is no apparent 

 stratification, and the ice is very clean as a whole. When the ice is 

 examined closely it is seen to be full of minute air bubbles and to be 

 coarsely granulated; which shows that it could not have been formed 

 by the freezing of a body of stanchng water. It must be either glacier 

 ice or snow that has become coarsely granulated by great age. 



A single glance at the boulders scattered over the surface and 

 weathered out along the beach is at once suggestive of glacial drift. 

 Most of them have the characteristic outlines of glacial boulders, but 

 many are angular from the shattering action of the intense frost. 

 Their lithological heterogeneity is very striking. Among the crystal- 

 lines it seems as if the whole gamut were run, but the sedimentaries 

 seem to be confined to quartzites and hmestones. The quartzites are 

 the most conspicuous — pink, red, and purple; often banded, cross- 



