ICE NOMENCLATURE. XV 
Eskers.—Long mounds or ridges, sometimes resembling moraines, or even railway 
embankments in general aspect, composed mostly of gravel, with more or less 
stratification, the layers often having some relation to the outer surface. 
Field Ice = Ice-field.—A sheet of ice of such extent that its termination cannot be seen 
from the crow’s nest. 
Firn.—See Neve. 
Floe.—The same as a field, except that its extent can be made out from the crow’s nest. 
Floeberg.—Large masses of sea icc, broken off from ancient floes of great thickness, 
when they are forced upon the shore. 
Glaciation.—The action of a glacier or ice-shect on the rocks or the country over which 
it has passed. 
Glacier.—A river of solid ice, descending from its source in the high névé of a snowfield. 
Glaciére.—A cave containing ice all the year round. 
Glacier-table—A block of stone supported on a pedestal of ice on the surface of a 
glacier. 
Ground Ice.—Ice formed on the bed of a river, lake, or shallow sea, while the water as 
a whole remains unfrozen. 
Ground Moraine.—Term applied to detrital material travelling—sometimes, perhaps, 
accumulated—between a glacier or ice-sheet and the bed of rock below. 
Hole.—A small pool of water in the ice. 
Hummock,—A rough hillock of ice, whether formed by séracs, pressure ridges, or other- 
wise. 
Iceberg.—A mass of land ice, broken from a glacier and floating in the sea. 
Ice Blink.— The whitish glare in the sky over ice which is too far distant to be visible. 
See Blink. 
Ice Block.—Dam formed across a river by tle packing of masses of ice in spring. 
Ice Cap.—A continuous covering of ice, névé, or snow, such as occurs in Polar lands. 
Ice Cliff or Barrier.—The edge of the great Antarctic glaciers which enter the sea, but 
remain attached to the land. 
Ice Fall.—An interruption in a glacier caused by an abrupt change of slope in its bed. 
Ice Floe.— See Floe. 
Ice Foot along a coast is caused by the accumulation of the autumn snow-fall as it 
drifts to the beach, being met by sea-water with a temperature just below the 
freezing-point of fresh water. It is at once converted into ice, forming a solid wall 
from the bottom of the sea, constantly maintained. The upper surface of an ice 
foot is level with the top of high water. The terrace above this wall, trom its 
edge to the base of the talus, has a width dependent on the land slope. 
Inland Ice.—An ice cap of very great extent, as in Greenland. 
Kame.—A gravel ridge, similar to, or identical with an Esker (which see). 
Land Ice.—Ice attached to the land, either in floes or in heavy grounded masses lying 
near the shove. 
Lane.—A narrow track of open water between portions of pack ice or floes. 
Lateral Moraine.—A ridge of rock débris along the side of a glacier. 
Lead.—A lane or channel of open water through the ice. 
Medial Moraine.—A ridge of rock débris running more or less along the middle line of 
a glacier. 
Moraine.—Rock débris associated with a glacier. 
Moulin (or Glacier Mill)—A vertical hole through the ice of a glacier down which a 
stream of water pours. 
Néve = firn—The upper portion of a glacier, the top layers of which are more nearly 
in the condition of snow, and in the whole of which much air is mingled with the 
ice—ie. it is rather frozen snow, though often hard frozen, than true ice. 
Nip.—The situation of a ship when forcibly pressed by ice on both sides. She is then 
said to be nipped. 
