Prof. Nordenshiold — Ex2oedition to Greenland. 301 



of our voyage, the northern side of the glacier that shoots out from 

 the inland ice, that occupies the bottom of the northern arm of 

 Auleitsivikfjord, that is to say, the spot selected as the starting- 

 point for our journey over the ice. 



The tract through which we passed, like the whole west coast of 

 Greenland south of the basalt region, bears a strong resemblance to 

 the Scandinavian peninsula, and that resemblance is not the result 

 of any accident, but of a similar geological formation, and a similar 

 geological history. The surface of Greenland, like that of Scandi- 

 navia, is for the most part occupied by stratified crystalline rock 

 (gneiss, hornblende-schist, hornblende-gneiss, mica-schist, etc.), 

 crossed by dykes and veins of granite, which even bear the same 

 peculiar minerals which distinguish the Scandinavian granite- 

 veins ; and, as in the case of our mountains, the mountains of 

 these regions have once been covered with glaciers, which have 

 left unmistakable marks of their presence in the boulders, which 

 are met with scattered high up on the sides of the mountains, in the 

 rounding off, in the polishing and grooving of the surface, and in the 

 deep fjords, evidently scooped out by glaciers, which distinguish 

 both Scandinavia's and Greenland's western coasts. There is, how- 

 ever, this difference, that whereas the glacial period of Scandinavia 

 belongs to an age long past, that of Greenland, though it is re- 

 ceding,^ still continues. While, in fact, numberless indications show 

 that the inland-ice has in ancient times covered even the skerries 

 round the coast, these are now so free from ice that a traveller in 

 most places has to advance several miles into the country before 

 reaching the border of the present inland-ice. It is at least certain 

 that wherever any one hitherto has penetrated into the land, he has 

 met with its border,^ and in all instances has seen it from some neigh- 

 bouring mountain-top, rising inwards with a gradual and regular 

 ascent, till it levels undistinguishably hill and dale beneath its 

 frozen covering, like the waves of a vast ocean. 



Of this inland-ice the natives entertain a superstitious fear, an 

 awe or prejudice, which has, in some degree, communicated itself to 

 such Europeans as have long resided in Greenland. It is thus only 

 that we can explain the circumstance, that in the whole thousand 

 years during which Greenland has been known, so few efforts have 

 been made to pass over the ice farther into the country. There are 

 many reasons for believing that the inland-ice merely forms a con- 

 tinuous ice-frame, running parallel with the coast, and surrounding 

 a land free from ice, perhaps even in its southern parts woody, which 

 might perhaps be of no small economical importance to the rest of 

 Greenland. The only serious attempt that has hitherto been made, 



1 Certainly receding, although the inland ice sometimes makes its way to the sea, 

 and thus tracts that have been free from ice are again covered. We have an example 

 of this in the ice -fjord of Jacobshavn, of which more hereafter. 



^ I have, however, met with persons in Greenland who do not consider it as fully 

 proved, that the inland-ice really does form an inner border to the whole of the ex- 

 ternal coast. Many Danes have resided several years in Greenland without ever 

 having seen the inland-ice. 



