BS 
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N Hi. Winchell—Dall’s Observations on Arctic Ice. 359 
In numerous places it seems that the ice is so far attenuated 
that the drift which it brings forward is the barrier against the 
ocean, and in other places the ice itself, underlying the drift, is 
brought into contact with the water of the Arctic Ocean. 
Without a just conception of the action of the vast continental 
glacier of glacial times, it is difficult to conceive of this ice in 
motion, and Mr. Dall believes it has no motion, adducing, how- 
ever, only the unbroken condition of the mosses and peats on 
its surface to prove it. It is to be hoped that inland explora- 
tion may be made of the glacier at Elephant’s Point, in order 
to ascertain. if it is derived from some mountain source. It is 
almost certain, if our ideas of glacier ice be correct, to have 
such a source, though its connection unbroken from the coast 
to the mountains, may be hid from sight for miles, in the same 
manner as its east and west flanks are hid by the accumula- 
tions on its surface. It is also highly probable that it will be 
found to come in various ways into contact with running 
water, some of which will bring upon it the fine tough clay 
described by Mr. Dall, and in other places will precipitate upon 
it, in stronger current, the gravel and sand, and even some of 
the stones which he mentions as covering it near Point Barrow. 
The facts reported by Mr. Dall throw great light on the 
manner of formation and deposit of the till, which has been the 
Source of much difference of opinion among glacialists. Some 
have imagined a moraine profonde, pushed out from the front 
margin of the ice-sheet in its retreat, left as a continuous terminal 
moraine from north to south after the ice bad entirely dis- 
moraine (to employ a new term) resulting from the same causes, 
whatever they may be, which bring the drift on to the surface 
of the ice in northern Alaska and which so frequently hide the 
surface of the small glaciers that have been described in the 
ocky Mountains. 
These observations also throw light on the cause and man- 
ner of formation of kames. Kames are gravel-ridges, lying in 
till-covered countries, and occupying the lower portions. e 
are generally coincident in direction with the direction of the 
Present surface drainage, and often on either side of a kame, 
which may be several miles in length, there is a swamp or low 
Spot, parallel with the kame, while on the right and left, out- 
side of this valley, the unbroken till spreads out indefinitely. 
