THE GLACIERS OF GREENLAND. 101 



Farther in on the ice the moraine gradually thins out. At 

 the locality just referred to the moraine cover, 3,000 feet 

 from land, measured several inches in depth; still the ice was 

 seen in some bare spots. Beyond 4,000 feet from land the 

 moraine formed no continuous cover, and at 8,300 feet it 

 ceased entirely, with a perceptible limit against clear ice. 

 Only some scattered spots of sand and gravel were met with 

 even a few hundred feet farther in on the ice. 



The average thickness of the moraine taken across its 

 entire width near its eastern end is estimated at from one to 

 two feet. The limit between the moraine cover and the pure 

 ice is always located at a considerable though varying ele- 

 vation above the edge of the inland ice. In the instance of 

 the above mentioned moraine it varied between 200 feet and 

 500 feet. 



The ice within 100 feet of its borders invariably presents 

 a slope towards the border, though generally not so steep as 

 to render the ascent at all difficult. Farther in, the slope is 

 much less marked, though there appears to exist a general 

 rising towards the east, while the surface everywhere presents 

 vast undulations. The border of the ice appears to have 

 retreated quite recently in many places; in others it had 

 evidently advanced .... On the surface the inland ice 

 either presented the appearance of a compact mass of coarse 

 crystallinic texture, reminding one of the grains of common 

 rock candy, or else it is honeycombed by the solar heat and 

 shows intersecting systems of parallel plates, apparently 

 the remnants of large ice crystals, often several inches long, 

 which have wasted away, only leaving the frame as it were, 

 on which they were built. These plates or tablets are highly 

 mirroring, reflecting the solar rays in all directions, depending 

 on the position of each individual crystal.* 



These observations respecting the height of the englacial 

 till in the ice correspond closely to those of Professor Russell 

 on the Malaspina Glacier in Alaska, and those of Professor 



* "American Naturalist," vol. xxii, pp. 589-598 and 705-713. July and 

 August, 1888. 



