POLAR ICE NOT DUE TO ELEVATION. 65 



country where it begins to lower itself through the 

 valleys, in the ramifications of the Bay of Omenak is 

 about 2000 feet, from which it gradually rises towards 

 the interior. Nordenskjold, in his first journey on the 

 inland ice, 30 miles from the coast, reached an eleva- 

 tion of 2200 feet, and found the ice continued to rise 

 inwards. Hayes, who penetrated 50 miles into the 

 interior, found the elevation about 5000 feet, and still 

 continuing to slope upwards towards the interior of 

 the continent. 



The mystery of the interior of Greenland has at last 

 been cleared up by Baron Nordenskjold in his recent 

 expedition. It was found, as might have been expected, 

 that the interior of Greenland is a complete desert of 

 ice, with the icy plain gradually sloping upwards 

 towards the ice-shed or centre of dispersion. After 

 penetrating to a distance of 280 miles from the coast, 

 the surface of the icy plain was found to be no less 

 than 7000 feet above the sea-level ; and this plain was 

 still seen to rise to the east. The greater part of the 

 surface of the inland ice is, of course, far above the 

 snow-line ; but this by no means proves that Greenland 

 is an elevated country, for this elevation of the upper 

 surface of the ice may be due entirely to the thickness 

 of the sheet. 



Of all the results gained by Nordenskj old's famous 

 expedition, perhaps the most important is the con- 

 firmation it has afforded of the true nature of 

 continental ice. 



Certainly no one has ever seen, and probably no one 

 ever will see, elevated land under the ice either of 

 Greenland or the Antarctic continent; and to assume 

 its existence because those regions are so completely 

 glaciated would simply be to beg the very question 

 at issue. 



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