84 THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



tion, and the traces of glacier action have been to a great ex- 

 tent destroyed, the whole country bears the marks of the grind- 

 ing and polishing of ice ; and, judging by the flatness of the 

 curves of the roches moutonnees, and by the perfection of the 

 polish which still remains upon the rocks, after they have sus- 

 tained many centuries of extreme variations of temperature, 

 the Glacial period during which such effects were produced 

 must have vastly exceeded in duration, or severity, the Glacial 

 period of Europe ; and the existing great interior ice-plateau 

 of Greenland, enormous as it is, must be considered as but the 

 remnant of a mass which was incalculably greater, and to 

 which there is no parallel at the present time, excepting within 

 the Antarctic Circle. 



And later on, in my book, "Scrambles among the Alps/' 

 1871, pages 246, 247 : 



The interior of Greenland appears to be absolutely covered 

 by a glacier between 68° 30-70° north latitude. ... On two 

 occasions, in 1867, I saw, at a glance, at least 6,000 square 

 miles of it from the summits of small mountains on its out- 

 skirts. Not a single peak or ridge was to be seen rising above, 

 nor a single rock reposing upon the ice. The country was 

 completely covered up by glaciers ; all was ice, as far as the eye 

 could see. . . . This vast ice-plateau, although smaller than it 

 was in former times, is still so extensive that the whole of the 

 glaciers of the Alps might be merged into it without its bulk 

 being perceptibly increased. 



In 1872 I again traveled in northwestern Greenland, and 

 by ascending various lofty mountains saw more of the " inland 

 ice"; and in the "Alpine Journal" for 1873, page 220, I 

 wrote : 



From all the principal summits you perceive the vast gla; 

 cier-clad interior of the country, stretching from north to 

 south in an unbroken line, with a crest as straight as a sea- 

 horizon. There are no marks upon it which enable one to cal- 

 culate the altitude to which it rises, or the distance to which 

 it extends. But having now seen it from several elevated and 

 widely separated positions, as I find that its summit-line always 

 appears lofty, even from the highest mountains which I have 

 ascended, my impression is that its height is generally not less 



