1^6 _ THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRACOR COAST. 



late in July, and certainly they never altogether thaw 

 away, we may reasonably infer that during its downwardl 

 progress, either as snow or water, a tremendous force- 

 must be exerted, a force quite sufficient to account for 

 the characteristic surface phenomenon just described." 



Contrary to the statement of Sir John Richardson- 

 in his " Polar Regions," both the accounts of Parry and^ 

 the earlier arctic voyagers, and especially C. F. Hall in 

 his " Arctic Researches," prove that on the northern, 

 edge of the American continent, and as low down as lat. 

 62°, and upon land rising between one thousand and two- 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea, there are mers- 

 de glace of great extent, discharging glaciers into the sea: 

 which present ice-fronts one hundred feet high. 



Parry, in his second voyage (p. 12), states that on 

 the north side of Hudson's Strait, after passing by Res- 

 olution Island, there " is a smooth part of the land 

 rather higher than that in its neighborhood, and for an 

 extent of one or two miles completely covered with, 

 snow. The snow remains upon it, as Mr. Davidson in- 

 formed us, the whole summer, as they find the land pre- 

 senting the same appearance on their return through the 

 Strait in the summer. This circumstance, which has. 

 obtained for it the name of 'Terra Nivea' upon the; 

 charts, I do not know how to account for, as the height 

 of the land above the level of the sea cannot certainly 

 exceed a thousand feet." 



Mr. C. F. Hall, during his residence in Frobisher's; 

 Bay, had excellent opportunities of observing during all 

 seasons of the year both ends of the Kingaite range of 

 mountains on 'Meta Incognita' which support this mer 

 de glace, which he named the Grinnell Glacier, and which 



