271 



dilïerent types of surface-features of the solid rock, viz., the upper 

 mountain-plateau, the mountainous country with sharp peaks 

 and ridges and, finally, the lower, rounded, and gently rolling 

 stretches of country. A description has just been given of the 

 first-named plateau; its existence, since the withdrawal of the ice, 

 depends on the fact that at this height, where the temperature 

 seldom rises above the freezing point, the erosive power of the 

 water is reduced to a minimum. Between these and the lowland 

 regions round the coast the intermediate type, the Alpine region 

 with its pointed peaks, inserts itself. Here ice and water have 

 combined to excavate deep valleys, and under the influence of 

 frost weathering the tops, which in the ice appeared as nunataks, 

 have assumed bolder shapes, without, however, suffering destruc- 

 tion. However, in other districts, with a very broken topo- 

 graphy and with lower summits, this has sometimes been the 

 case, and then we get the regions of the third type — a low 

 rolling country that gently slopes outwards, and from which 

 rounded hillocks rise. If from this level some isolated rocky 

 mass rises to any height, it shows angular, rugged contours 

 of the second type, and consequently appears as an ancient 

 nunatak that has been left undestroyed by the acting forces. Of 

 this the often described and reproduced^) Umanak Rock in West 

 Greenland is a fine example. 



Within this district a higher plateau-land reaches almost 

 out to the sea in the basalt territory on the S. side of Scoresby 

 Sund. In general the region nearest the sea is a cut-up 

 Alpine country, while the district where the third type appears 

 best in its contrast to it is the S. or S. W. part of Liverpool 

 Land. 



In sharp contrast to all these types, cutting through them with' 

 steep mountain walls, without very much altering their character 

 at the variations of country, are the fjords and the deep valleys 



M Drygalski, Grönland Expedition, I, PI.3; also Medd. om Grønland, IV, Pi. 7. 



