^'mAEIOn" EXPEDITIOX to DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIX BAY 23 



At noon, after an opportunity had been g-iven the Danes and the 

 natives to visit the Marion^ Ave <>ot under way and stood out of the 

 tiny harbor, so picturesque Avith its kyaks and other native boats 

 and its numerous small ice masses brou<^ht in by Avind and tide from 

 the bay. Upon leaving the harbor the massed bergs just off the 

 mouth of the Jacobshavn ice fiord Avere A'isited. A feAV minutes 

 Avere spent examining the great ice Avail formed by the congestion of 

 icebergs and in obtaining from a dory photographs of it like the one 

 shoAvn in Figure 18. 



At 1.45 p. m. the Marion Avas headed for Ata, a small village 32 

 miles to the nortliAvard on Prince Island, Avhere a native guide to 

 conduct a party up into the inland ice Avas to be received. From 

 4.48 to 5.25 p. m. the ship drifted off Ata Avhile the pilot and guide, 

 a Greenlander named Peter Peterson, made readA'. came out in his 



AN ICEBERG JAM 



Figure 18. — The Marion cruisins: off the mouth of Jacobshavn Fiord on August 9, 1928, 

 found the bergs so tightly packed together that not even a ship's boat could penetrate 

 beyond the outer line. On the average of twice monthly in summer, usually about the 

 time of the spring tides, large numbers of these bergs float free. 



kyak, and Avas taken aboard. At 8.10 p. m. the ship anchored in 

 Port Quervain Harbor, near the south end of Ekip-Sermia Glacier, 

 Avhich produces large numbers of very small bergs. This glacier 

 runs doAvn steeply from the inland ice and is broken up by innumer- 

 able creA^asses Avhere it passes oa er a rock spur. Apparently only this 

 breaking up process prevents it from forming large bergs like those 

 that push seaAvard from the JacobshaATi ice fiord. 



The sea Avail of this glacier Avas about A'ertical, and near its center 

 AA^as a great ice caA^ern, probably the end of a tube serA^ing farther 

 inland as the conduit pipe for a subglacial stream. A strong milky 

 current setting out from under the ice Avas carrying aA\'ay rapidly all 

 the bergs and small ice pieces as fast as they Avere calved. Sliots 

 fired into the glacier from the Marion's 3-inch gun brought doAvn a 

 feAA^ tons of ice from Aveakened and OA'erhanging cornices, but the 

 firing AA-as really Avithout appreciable effect. Spontaneous cahdng, on 



