1853.] 



SUTHERLAND ARCTIC REGIONS. 



301 



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To the southward of Melville Bay, 

 there are numerous outlets for the ice 

 in the coast, and they vary in breadth 

 from two or three up to fifteen or twenty 

 miles. To have a correct idea of the 

 glacier accumulation in Greenland, we 

 must imagine a continent of ice flanked 

 on its seaward side by a number of 

 islands, and in every other direction 

 lost to vision in one continuous and 

 boundless plain. Through the spaces 

 between these apparent islands, the 

 enormous glacial accumulations slowly 

 seek their passage to the sea (see fig.), 

 and send off an annual tribute of ice- 

 bergs to encumber, to cool, and to di- 

 lute the waters of the adjoining ocean. 

 The average height or depth of the 

 ice at its free edge in these intervals, 

 or valleys, between the projecting points 

 of coast is 1200 or 1500 feet, of which 

 about one-eighth, or 150 feet, will be 

 above water. In some of the valleys, 

 however, the depth is upwards of 2400 

 feet. This may be considered to be 

 satisfactorily ascertained, for the Esqui- 

 maux around South-east Bay, lat. 68°, 

 while pursuing halibut-fishing during 

 the winter months, require lines of 

 three hundred fathoms to reach the 

 bottom at the foot of the glacier near 

 Claushaven. In South-east (Disco) 

 Bay, and also in North-east Bay (Ome- 

 nak Fiord), we meet with the icebergs 

 that draw the greatest depth of water, 

 but those of the greatest cubic con- 

 tents occur in Melville Bay and in 

 several smaller bays to the southward 

 of it. At Cape York, lat. 7&°, although 

 the glacier there is the northward con- 

 tinuation of the glacier in Melville Bay, 

 its protrusions into the sea (Sketch 

 No. 2, a, see fig.) never exceed 50 to 

 60 feet above the sea-level ; and in 

 some places it does not enter the sea 

 in a continuous mass, but having de- 

 scended over the brow of the cliff, it 

 breaks off and slips down into the sea 

 over the rocks, scratching and scoring 

 them in a very marked manner. This 



