239 



generality of the Icelandic fjords, though they are probably a 

 good deal deeper. Especially fine is Römers Fjord, where we 

 sounded a depth of 128 fathoms, while at the mouth we found 

 1 1 1 fathoms, though neither figure^) can claim to be a maximum. 

 The average height of the surrounding mountain walls is about 

 800 metres, and they vary but slightly; nor is there here any 

 plateau landscape, but rather an interchange of ridges and 

 peaks, separated by valleys, to be described later on. The 

 inclination towards the fjord is almost perpendicular and the 

 banking of the rocks may be well seen in the walls. The 

 Henry Peninsula, too, is bordered by such sheer walls that it 

 can only be scaled with great difficulty at a few spots from the 

 ravines of small rivers. 



I obtained a view over the interior of the land mainly 

 during a short tour across the ice on the so-called Bartholins 

 Glacier, which lies in a fjord-like, deeply eroded valley with 

 steep walls; it is a huge glacier, about 3 km broad at its 

 front. At first these mountains are broken up by cleft valleys, 

 and, when viewed in detail, split up into irregular summits and 

 peaks; but further in, everything closes in and seems to pass 

 over into broad plateaus, covered by but small masses of snow 

 icf. also fig. 30 on p. 268). I received the impression that the 

 land, already at a short distance from the coast, converges into 

 a few similar, level plateaus, as is the case in Iceland (NW. 

 Land), though possibly here, under the protection of the snow 

 and ice, of far greater extent and uniformity than there. 



Characteristic of the basalt area, in contrast with the area 

 of Archaean rock, is consequently, in the first place the absence 

 of Qords of any length, and then the wall-like even if some- 

 what echinate boundary of the mountains, without any large, 

 pointed masses rising above the mean level. In this respect it 

 recalls the sedimentary areas described below, though these, 



*) Quoted from the corrected figures on Kochs map. 



