302 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 1, 



is very well seen in the localities represented in the accompanying 

 figure at h and c (foregoing page), where the free edge of the ice is 

 upwards of 20 feet thick, and at least 100 feet above the sea-level ; 

 the inclination of the abraded part of the coast being about 43°. But 

 it is much better seen on the west side of Baffin's Bay, at Cape Fitz- 

 roy, on the south side of Jones' Sound, and at Cape Bowen, Pond's 

 Bay, where the free edge of the ice is at least 50 feet thick, and 

 about 200 feet above the sea-level. Although many hundred miles 

 of coast intersected by glaciers were examined in the late voyage of 

 the " Isabel," under the command of Capt. Inglefield, R.N., these 

 cited localities were the only places, with one or two very trifling 

 exceptions, where this interesting phsenomenon of powerful abrading 

 action was observed. I believe it can be so far accounted for by the 

 steepness of the inclination, but chiefly by the greater friability 

 (diminished plasticity) of the ice from the diminished temperature. 



One cannot easily determine why the icebergs that come from the 

 glaciers at, and to the northward of. Cape York and on the west side 

 of Davis' Straits, are of less dimensions generally than elsewhere. 

 At Cape York, where we have a new formation of rocks (trappean) 

 commencing, and further northward in the same coast, it is probably 

 owing to the comparative shallowness of the valleys and to a dimi- 

 nished supply of snow from the greater intensity of the cold. On 

 the west coast, from Victoria Head to Jones' Sound, although the 

 land has almost a perfect icy casing, the icebergs that are sent off 

 are by no means large, and this, as in the other case, may arise from 

 the decrease of evaporation with the decrease of temperature. Again, 

 from Jones' Sound southward, there cannot be such extensive accu- 

 mulations of ice as on the opposite and more northern shore of Green- 

 land, although the rocks in both cases are of the same character 

 generally, for the reason, I believe, that the vapour-bearing stratum 

 of air coming from the southward, over an extensive tract of land, con- 

 tributes but scantily to the growth of the glacier on the former as 

 compared with the latter, which is liberally supplied by the vapour- 

 charged currents going northerly from the North Atlantic and 

 Davis' Straits. But it is still more difficult to account for the entire 

 absence of glaciers on the Silurian rocks westward of Lancaster 

 Sound. Why the snow and rain falling on the land around Barrow 

 Straits and its tributary inlets and bays should all escape into the sea 

 in running streams of water every year during the two short months 

 and a half of June, July, and August, while that falling on the coasts 

 of Davis' Straits makes its escape as hard, but yielding ice, after a 

 lapse of many ages, is a question worthy the attention of the student 

 of physical phsenomena. 



The annual mean temperature in the creeks and inlets of Barrow 

 Straits is several degrees lower than that in corresponding latitudes 

 on the shores of Davis' Straits ; and even at Wolstenholme Sound, 

 nearly two degrees higher latitude, the annual mean temperature 

 is nearly three degrees higher than at Melville Island. This, 

 however, will not throw light upon our difficulty. The ranges of 

 temperature will probably prove more useful. A few degrees above 



