56 



which is formed in the bays themselves. It is clearly impossible 

 that stones and gravel should come down on the ice from the 

 shores, which are often steep. Either the ice thus formed in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the shore cannot be loosened, 

 by the surf, and so will melt in the same place, or, if the ice 

 really comes out into the bay, it will only stay there a com- 

 paratively short time before it is conveyed farther out; if this 

 were not so the sea bottom would be much richer in stones 

 than is really the case. Finally, no projecting stones and rocks 

 can be found at the bottom of the sea, at any rate not in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the samples in question. 

 Whatever the explanation of this absence of stones may be, it 

 will at any rate prove one of the most striking phenomena in 

 the samples from these parts. One would never have expected 

 beforehand that the samples nearest land, and in the places 

 which do not seem to be very well protected against the surf, 

 would be considerably finer than the great majority of samples 

 from the open sea. 



It is not only the slight amount of stony material which 

 characterises these samples, but also, to an even higher degree, 

 the almost entire absence of sandy ingredients, so that No. 43 

 and 46, in this respect, are only exceeded by the above men- 

 tioned No. 24 obtained outside the mouth of Davys Sund. 

 This is a case which probably only occurs elsewhere in shut-in 

 and quiet bays, while No. 43 and 46, obtained from the mouths 

 of Fleming Inlet and Carlsberg Fjord respectively, are 

 rather exposed to the influence of the open sea. 



There is also a probable explanation of the slight quantity 

 of larger ingredients in the samples if we suppose that the 

 clayey ingredients would be deposited in especially large quan- 

 tities in these bays. Even if the coast-erosion in such places 

 were less important than it would be right out in the open sea, 

 the rivers would nevertheless be able to convey clay into the 

 sea, and, the amount would be approximately alike for a tract of 



