the east, and suffers loss mainly in the west. The glaciers are 

 deeply crevassed in their lower courses and are difficult to ascend. 



Surrounding- the ice cap is an almost continuous ice-free coastal 

 zone varying in width from 1 to over 100 miles. The most exten- 

 sive ice-free land is on the western coast from latitude 65° N. to 

 69° N. and in the extreme north in Peary Land. The coastal area 

 is very rugged, with numerous islands and bare skerries offshore. 

 Deep fiords extend inland for miles, offering easy penetration into 

 the island, but the fiords and the mountainous promontories make 

 land travel along the coast almost impossible. The southern coast 

 is especially rugged, and the east coast is fairly unapproachable 

 because of the heavy off-lying polar pack ice. 



In the north, the island has the form of a rectangle and in the 

 south, a wedge. Thus, it is similar to the great continents with 

 their broad shoulders in the north and narrow ends in the south. 



The southern third of Greenland is a plateau inclined toward 

 the interior zone. On the west side it may be considered to extend 

 to a point south of Disko Bay and on the east side to very nearly 

 the same latitude (68° N.). The land-forms are generally alpine 

 in character. The mountains at the southern end rise in jagged 

 ridges to over 6,500 feet. They are dissected by fiords and sounds, 

 and furrowed by innumerable glaciers that arise from separate 

 ice caps. On the east coast up to Angmagssalik, the principal set- 

 tlement, the coastal belt practically maintains the same altitude 

 and degree of dissection. However, the inland ice leaves only a 

 narrow strip scarcely 3 miles wide free of ice in the extreme south- 

 east. On the west coast from as far south as Julianehaab, there 

 are rounded topographic forms with lesser height, mostly under 

 4,000 feet. Here, along a 500 mile stretch of coast, these sorrel 

 forms prevail with few exceptions. At the same time, the ice-free 

 land grows in width to as much as 100 miles as one proceeds 

 northward. 



At latitude 69° N. on the west coast the picture changes. In 

 place of the narrow, transverse fiords, there appear broad, round 

 bays, peninsulas, and islands. The topographic form here is, on 

 the whole, that of an elevated peneplain rising to 7,000 feet or 

 more. Disko Island is the largest in the area with an average 

 altitude of 3,500 feet. There is no inland ice on any of these three 

 prominent landmarks. The snow line in the marginal belt lies 

 below 3,500 feet, but on the inland ice it rises to 5,000 feet. Boul- 

 der trains, boulder beds, and extensive ridges testify to the greater 

 extension of the ice in former times in the lake-studded region. 



61 



