412 PROF. NORDENSKIOLD, E:?i:PEDITION TO CHiEENLAND. 



account of the masses of ice driven hither and thither by the 

 violent currents near the shore. 



Further out the fjord was completely covered with lofty sharp- 

 pointed icebergs, some of which stood so firmly on the ground 

 that the stream could only move them at flood- tide. Others, which 

 did not draw so much water, were carried hither and thither by 

 the currents, and it is difficult to describe in words the deep 

 booming and scraping which took place when these were driven 

 against each other or against the still mightier masses aground. A 

 loud report sometimes gave notice of the splitting of an iceberg, 

 vrhich was usually followed by a violent undulation reaching to 

 the shore. It is not surprising that the Greenlanders do not like 

 to make long voyages in such waters. Neither did we long 

 continue our row. Just on the other side of a headland formed 

 by a high steep gull-hill, bordering the mouth of Tessiursak, were 

 the remains of an old house, which formed the terminus of our 

 journey. Here we rested for the night, and returned next day 

 by the same route by which we had come. We employed our 

 time partly in an examination from the tops of the neighbouring 

 hills of the vast iceberg -factory that lay at our feet, and partly 

 in a careful investigation of the remains of the dwellings left 

 desolate for a century, perhaps many centuries, where we now 

 rested. 



I have already given a profile of this glacier (Fig. 5), from 

 which it may be seen that it is impossible to draw any definite 

 line of boundary between the inland ice and the sea. The glacier 

 is, in fact, as its profile indicates, for a considerable distance, 

 probably several miles, from its end broken up into icebergs, 

 the original situation of which has, by the continual advance of 

 the ice, been entirely disturbed, so that they are thrown in con- 

 fusion one over the other. Even at the mouth of the fjord these 

 icebergs are as closely packed as when they formed a part of the 

 glacier, and most of them perhaps always aground. It is at a 

 considerable distance further on that they are separated from each 

 other, so far at least as to allow the surface of the water to be 

 seen between them. 



Even if there had been time to take topographical measure- 

 ments, it would not have been possible for me to state how many 

 hundred yards the house we now visited is from where the fjord 

 and inland ice meet. It is certain that at present the distance is 

 not very great, and the appearance of the environs must have been 

 very difi'erent when Kaja — such is said to have been the name of 

 the locality — was an inhabited place. That it was so for a long 

 period is shown by the magnitude of the kitchenmiddens, and by 

 the numerous remains of houses and graves. Either the leVel of 

 the water in the fjord has risen or the land has sunk considerably 

 since that time. It is not probable that the situation of a house 

 would be chosen so close to the shore that not even a canoe eould 

 find room in front of the dwelling. 



As a Greenlander now seldom resides at any distance from the 

 Danish-trading stations, one finds in numberless places along the 



