SCIENTIFIC EESULTS 73 



The oiitstandino; feature of the east Greeuhind district is the 

 (leoree to which to])o<rrai)hy interferes with the moveiuents of the 

 ber<r«. The east coast <.daciers, many of wliich are rejjorted as 

 i('eher<r }jr()dncin<r. are ureatly modified by a snbnier<^ed threshohl 

 which bottles \\\) all but the very small bergs until they have partially 

 or completely disintegrated. Icebergs which are discharged froiii 

 the deeper fjords of east Greenland are also often blockaded by pack 

 ice which prevents their escape during a large part of the year. 

 Lastly the wind (Greenland lies on the northwestern side of the great 

 "Icelandic mininuim") tends to blow the pack ice and to hold the 

 liergs on shore. 



The north Greenland glaciers average large, but dammed up by 

 ])ack ice and frozen solid by " sikussak " (p. 24) no large bergs can 

 calve. Most of the ice streams are backed by a flat, slow, spreading 

 ice sheet which naturally has little tendency toward movement. The 

 cap itself ends along miles of high precipitous walls, but where the 

 glaciers extend out. they do so in broad, flat tongues the floatinuf ends 

 of which merge into the fast ice. Xo icebergs are ever foi'med under 

 such conditions. 



The westermnost district is characterized l)y a great number of 

 small glaciers which have little movement. Tiiis sluggishness is due 

 not so much to blockades from the sea. as lack of a head from the 

 inland ice reservoirs. 



Melville Bay glaciers are numerous and the ice fronts the sea in 

 greater proportion than in any other region. A few of the glaciers 

 exhibit a high rate of productivity but the littoral is beset by many 

 off-lying skerries, and many years have been recorded wdien fast 

 ice completely barred egress to the sea. 



The Northeast Bay and the Disko Bay district is characterized 

 as the most ]>roductive region of icebergs in Greenland. It is like- 

 wise known for three distinctive types of ice fjords: 



{a) Glaciers which slope steeply down to the fjord. Example : 

 Sermilik Glacier. 



(6) Glaciers which flow down on to a foot forming a short .step 

 on the foreshore. Example: Great Karajak Glacier. 



(c) Glaciers having a continuous easy descent from the inland 

 ice to the sea. Example : Jacobshavn Glacier. 



The bottom of tlie Jacobshavn Valley and upper fjord is featured 

 by an easy gradual slope, an important condition w^e believe, which 

 favors the production of large icebergs. The noted oscillation of 

 (he glacier, often stretching far out before calving, is another indica- 

 tion of the lack of disorderly fracturing. A glacier flowing down a 

 steep and uneven declivity, on the other hand, suffers many interrup- 

 tions to the stream flow, and only small pieces of ice float away. The 

 many small-size fjords of southern Greenland usually have one or 

 more glaciers discharging at their head. The narrowness and shal- 

 lowness of most of this class, however, forms only small insignificant 

 bergs, scarcely larger than growlers that seldom escape from the 

 fjord. 



EAST GREENLAND GLACIERS 



Owing to the inaccessibility of the east coast of Greenland, our 

 knowleclge of its iceberg-discharging glaciers and of their productiv- 

 ity is less complete than for the west coast. First, many of the 



