Greenland and the Antarctic Continent. 353 
way through the comparatively narrow fjords before reaching 
the sea, the moraines could not fail to be occasionally observed 
did they exist. 
But supposing there were mountains in the interior, this 
would not account for the general ice-covering. It would 
not account for the intervening spaces between the mountains 
being filled up with ice. To account for the whole country 
being covered with ice through the influence of mountains, we 
should have to assume that it was studded over with them at 
no great distance from one another ; otherwise all that we 
should have would simply be local glaciers. 
Dr. Eobert Brown, one of the highest authorities in matters 
relating to Greenland, who does not believe in the existence 
of mountain-masses in the interior, says : — u I do not think a 
range of mountains at all necessary for the formation of this 
huge mer de glace, for this idea is derived from the Alpine and 
other mountai n -ranges, where the glacial system is a petty 
affair compared with that of Greenland. I look upon Green- 
land," he continues, " and its interior ice-field in the light of 
a broad- lipped shallow vessel, but with breaks in the lip here 
and there, and the glacier like some viscous matter in it. As 
more is poured in, the viscous matter will run over the edges, 
naturally taking the line of the chinks as its line of outflow. 
The broad lips of the vessel, in my homely simile, are the out- 
lying islands or ' outskirts;' the viscous matter in the vessel, 
the inland ice ; the additional matter continually being poured 
in, the enormous snow-covering, which, winter after winter, 
for seven or eight months in the year, falls almost continuously 
on it ; and the chinks or breaks in the vessel are the fjords or 
valleys down which the glaciers, representing the outflowing 
viscous matter, empty the surplus of the vessel" *. 
In North Greenland and along Smith Sound a warm south- 
east wind, somewhat similar to the Fohn of Switzerland, has 
been reported in the middle of winter. From this it has been 
inferred by some that there must be high ranges of mountains 
in the interior from which this wind descends. There are, 
however, certainly no good grounds for such a conclusion ; 
for we know that the upper surface of the inland ice of North 
Greenland, 50 or 100 miles from the outskirts, has an eleva- 
tion of at least 4000 or 5000 feet. Now a wind crossing this 
icy plateau and descending to the sea-level would have its 
temperature raised by upwards of 20°, and also its capacity 
for moisture at the same time greatly increased. The conse- 
quence would therefore be that, in the midst of a Greenland 
winter, such a wind would be felt to be hot and dry. 
* ' Arctic Papers for the Expedition of 1875/ p. 24. 
Phil. Mag. S. 5. Vol. 16. No. 101. Nov. 1883. 2 C 
