68 DISCUSSIONS IN CLIMATOLOGY. 



pared with that of Greenland. I look upon Greenland," 

 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 outlying 

 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 elevation 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 consequence would there- 

 fore be that, in the midst of a Greenland winter, such 

 a wind would be felt to be hot and dry. 



The opinion was expressed by Giesecke, who long- 

 resided in Greenland, that that country is merely a 

 * "Arctic Papers for the Expedition of 1875," p. 24. 



