82 MAEION^ EXPEDITION TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAEFIX BAY 



line. But of these, lOT — two-thirds of the total — do not even reach| 

 the sea, while the remaining 54 are at present classed as tidewater 

 giaciers.^^ About 29 of these are apparently without motion, leaving 

 25 that may on occasions j^roduce icebergs. The glaciers met from 

 Cape Alexander to Cape York, are in order : Brother John. Dodge, 

 Storm, Chield, Bu, Banse, Markham, Diebitsch, Morris Jessup. 

 Meehan, Verhoeff, Sun, Bow^loin, Hubbard, Hart, Sharp, Melville- 

 Tracy-Farqhar, Heilprin, Marre, Liedy, Knut Rasmussen, Moltke. 

 Pitufig, and Nos. 1 to 16, Conical Eock to Cape York. Five of tlie 

 foregoing, only 3 per cent of the grand total, account, furthermore, 

 for the discharge of 80 per cent of all the bergs in northwest Green- 

 land, namely: Morris Jessup, Bowdoin, Melville-Tracy-Farqhar, 

 Moltke, Pitufig. The Eskimos, in commenting on the productivity 

 of the glaciers in this district, Cape Alexander to Cape York, state 

 that nearly all are stationary, hence little productive of bergs, and 

 that condition has prevailed as long as they can recollect or learn 

 through legends. We estimate that 250 to 300 bergs, about 5 per 

 cent of the grand total drifting toward the Atlantic, are supplied 

 from the glaciers of northwest Greenland. 



The Glaciers, Cape York to Svartexhuk Peninsula 



The west Greenland foreland is by nature divided transversely 

 into two parts, the southern half, Cape Farewell to Disko Bay char- 

 acterized, except for the Frederickshaab ice lobe, by a relatively wide 

 land fringe, while the northern end, Upernivik to Cape York, is ice 

 walled. The southern section owes its ice-free conditions largely 

 to the decidedly higher mean temperatures which accompany the 

 great warm-water masses from the Atlantic. As soon as we pass 

 across the Davis Strait sill, however, into the region of icy Baffin 

 Bay, climatic conditions abruptly change and Greenland's coast 

 becomes extremely glaciated. 



The inland ice reaches the sea in the northern section at more 

 than 80 different places and so icy is the coast that all the principal 

 land features are completely hidden for approximately ISO miles. 

 The glaciers named in order from Cape York southward are : Hel- 

 land, Wulff, Yugyar Nielsen, Mohn, John Ross, Gade, Docker- 

 Smith, Rink, Peary, King Oscar, Nordenskiold, Nansen, Dietrich- 

 son, Steenstrup, Kjaer, Hayes, Giesecke, lodhulik, and Ui)ernivik. 

 Some idea of the massiveness of these ice streams can be olitained 

 when it is stated that nine of them, viz : Steenstrup. Xansen, King 

 Oscar, Peary, Mohn, John Ross, Wulff. Giesecke, and Upernivik 

 are more than 5 miles wide across their fronts. Those which are 

 especially productive of icebergs are : Steenstrup, Dietrichson, Nan- 

 sen, King Oscar, Hayes, Giesecke, and Upernivik. The most produc- 

 tive one of them all, King Oscar, is believed to discharge as many 

 as 500 icebergs a year. 



Steenstrup glacier ranks largest with a front of iC miles, the 

 northern third of which is stated to be very productive. On accoun.t 

 of the smooth contour of the marginal land, across wdiich the glacier 



^1 Koch (1922, p. 216) states that there are 16 alpine slaciers located along the slopes 

 of Crimson Bluffs, Conical Rock to (^apc York, bnt owing to their small size and slow rate 

 of movement their yield is not ecjuivalent in volume to that of more tlian one good-sized 

 berg a year. 



