AND CIRQUES IN NORWAY AND GREENLAND. 145 



is very strikingly exhibited at the upper end of the Kangerdlugssuak 

 Fjord, where the mountains rise several thousand feet above the 

 Inland Ice. Nowhere did I see mountains rising from it at any- 

 great distance from its outer edge ; but it often happens that portions 

 of land protrude like islands near the border of the sea of ice ; these, 

 however, are not be regarded as insulated peaks rising above the 

 ice, but rather as portions of the bordering land encircled by the 

 Inland Ice or its dependent glaciers. Tliey resemble in appearance 

 the bordering land, and are called by the natives Nunataks, appen- 

 dages to the land. For example, at Kangcrdlugssuak, where the 

 mountains are lofty and the sides of the fjords steep, there are three 

 Nunataks, also with steep nearly vertical sides, and equalling in 

 height the neighbouring land ; but above the Inland Ice of Disko 

 Bay, where the outlines of the land are less abrupt, the Nunataks 

 are lower knolls. 



I observed the Inland Ice most closely above Ilartdlek, near 

 Pakitsok, during an expedition up it on July 17, 1875. Here the 

 mountains rise some hundreds of feet above the Inland Ice, from 

 which a huge glacier descends almost to the sea, probably through a 

 valley in the mountain-ridge. By ascending a mountain on the left 

 side of this glacier and then descending some three or four hundred 

 feet, the surface of the Inland Ice may be reached without difficulty ; 

 it forms here small undulating and gently sloping hummocks, on an 

 average scarcely six feet high, and so is easily traversed ; there are 

 but few fissures, and these narrow enough to be crossed without 

 difficulty. Several rivers, however, flow over the suiface in various 

 directions, some too large to be easily crossed. Their water is clear 

 and free from mud ; they have excavated canal-shaped beds, the ice at 

 the bottom being of a bluish colour. Their size doubtless depends 

 upon the temperature ; and when it sinks to the freezing-point they 

 probably vanish. On that day at 4 p.m., the air-temperature one 

 and a half metre from the surface of the ice was 7° C. in the shade. 

 The ice itself is granular at the surface ; but this structure extends to 

 no great depth ; for, on cutting into it, compact ice, with air-bubbles, 

 is soon found. The ordinary ice is often intersected by blue veins. 

 Cones of sand and gravel with the usual icy cores occur near the 

 border of the Inland Ice, also regular cylindrical holes of variable 

 breadth up to one and half metre, filled with clear water and with 

 a layer of clay at the bottom. Boulders and gravel are only found near 

 the border of the Inland Ice ; along this was a small moraine scarcely 

 six feet high, while that beside the glacier lower down was as much 

 as 16 metres. The above description of the Inland Ice at Ilartdlek 

 agrees in all respects with that given by Professor Nordenskjold of the 

 Inland Ice above Aulatsivik (Auleitsivik) ; so that probably the same 

 features would be found over the whole extent of the surface be- 

 tween the two places, only interrupted by crevasses where the great 

 glaciers descend to the fjords. The surface of these is often so 

 much fissured as to be impassable ; the above crevasses, however, do 

 not appear generally, so far as my experience goes, to extend very 

 far up into the Inland Ice. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to 



