462 T. F. Jamieson — Oscillation of Laud in Glacial Period. 



Gkeenlanb, 



In Western Greenland, according to Capt. Graali and Dr. Pingel/ 

 there is evidence of a depression of the land having been going on 

 for the last four centuries, and some think the land-ice has been on 

 the increase during the same period. Adhemar in his book main- 

 tained that, in accordance with his theory, the temperature of the 

 northern hemisphere was highest about the year 1248, and has been 

 on the decline since then. He also contended that the Arctic ice 

 has been increasing during the same period, and the Antarctic 

 diminishing. It would be indeed an interesting coincidence were it 

 actually the fact that in Greenland an increase of the ice in modern 

 times has been accompanied by a subsidence of the land. It would 

 appear that the Greenlanders have long had an idea that the ice is 

 increasing. The Danish natui'alist, Fabricius, who flourished in the 

 latter part of the eighteenth century, states that the land-ice was 

 advancing every year ; and so rapid was its progress that Green- 

 landers, then alive, remember their fathers hunting reindeer among 

 naked mountains, which had become completely covered with ice; but 

 that it was in the valleys the increase was greatest. 



The facts detailed by Dr. E. Brown seem to leave no room for 

 doubt as to the subsidence of part of the coast in recent times ; and 

 as regards the increase of the ice, we have not onl}^ the opinions and 

 traditions of the inhabitants, but also the testimony of Nordenskiold, 

 who tells us that there can be no doubt that in many parts of North 

 Greenland the inland ice is certainly gaining ground.^ In 1850 

 Dr. Eink mapped the south side of Umanak Fjord (about lat. 71°), 

 showing the extent of the glaciers in that locality, and recording 

 their exact distance from the sea. In 1875 Mr. Holland visited six 

 of these glaciers, and found that since 1850 two of them had advanced 

 considerably, and one had retreated. In regard to the other three 

 there would appear to have been little variation (Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc. vol. xxxiii. p. 154, 1877). 



Fjokd Latitudes and the Skakgard. 



It is worthy of remark that in all Fjord latitudes there are chains 

 of rocks and islands along the coast lying a little outside the main 

 mass of land. In Norway this is called the " Skargard." The 

 same feature is seen on the west coast of Greenland, and very 

 notably in British Columbia and Patagonia, and also to some extent 

 on the west coast of Scotland. 



It seems to me that this peculiar feature may be due, in some 

 measure, to the greater relative depression of the mainland by the 

 ice, which would lie there in a heavy mass long after the outer rim 

 of the coast became clear of it, as we see in Greenland at the pre- 

 sent day. Consequently there would result a much longer continu- 

 ance of pressure, and a greater amount of subsidence, which might 



^ See Lyell's Principles, 11th ed. vol. ii. p. 196 ; also Proceedings of the Geol. 

 Soc. vol. ii. p. 208 ; and K. Brown in the Quart. Journ. of the Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. 

 p. 691, 1870. 



2 Geol. Magazine, for 1872, Vol. IX. 



