SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 83 



Hows, itb icebei'g.s have a strikingly flat-topped, tabular appearance, 

 ,1 \era<i:in<r about TO feet in height when floating. Nansen Glacier pro- 

 duces similar shaped bergs, even loftier. And Steenstrup and Nansen 

 ( rlaciers are peculiar from any of the glaciers of the west coast in dis- 

 charging such large blocks.^'- The coast between Hayes Glacier and 

 ( iiesecke Glacier contributes very few icebergs, while the production 

 j of Giesecke and Upernivik Glaciers, it is also stated by Porsild °^ and 

 Koch (1923, p. 53) has been unduly emphasized in early literature. 

 I'pernivik Glacier discharges a fair number of bergs, but they are 

 mostly small and often ground in the offing of the skerries. 



INfelville Bay is furthermore marked Avith many banks which are 

 sufficiently shallow to strand the bergs and thus detain them from 

 <lriftinir out of Baffin Bav. Such shoals are known to exist off Diet- 



A Greenland iceberg Fjord 



KiGiui; -11. — Umanak Fjord looking east from the north shore of Nugsuak I'eninsula. 

 Umanak is one of the most imiiortant iceberg fjords on the west coast of Green- 

 land. The fjords north of the seventieth parallel of latitude are normally 

 covered bv fast ice during the colder months, causing the icebergs to be held in 

 the fjords until the break-up of the fast ice in June. (Photograph hy A. Heim 

 in Meddeleleser om Gronland, vol. 47.) 



richsoii and King Oscar Glaciers because of the great number of 

 bergs held there for protracted periods. The coast from Wilcox 

 Head to Svartenhuk Peninsula is famous for its maze of ofi^-lying 

 islands, rocks and skerries, and the irregularity of the offshore ground, 

 by tending to prevent the bergs from drifting out to sea greatly off- 

 sets the productivity of the glaciers in this section. It is estimated 

 that the district Cape York to Svartenhuk Peninsula annually con- 

 tributes about 1.500 bergs to the quota of Baffin Bay. 



^=The characteristic tabular forms often sigliti d by the ice patrol off Newfoundland have 

 probably come from these two glaciers in Melville Bay. Ricketts (1930, p. 118) observed 

 that the tabular-shaped bergs south of the forty-fourth parallel were as numerous as the 

 more irregular-shaped liergs in 1929. As a rule the Hat-topped ones are in the minority. 

 Since 1920 was a rich berg year off NewffUindland, a possible cause may have been the 

 ri'lcasp of larger than normal numbers of Melville Bay icebergs. 



^^ In conversation. 



