POLAR ICE NOT DUE TO ELEVATION. 81 



acquired a thickness sufficient to prevent any further 

 flow in that direction, or, in other words, till its 

 thickness at the Pole became as great as it is all 

 around. 



The opinion that the great mass of the ice on the 

 Antarctic continent and also on Greenland lies near 

 to the outer edge, and that it gradually diminishes 

 inwards till at last it disappears, is evidently one 

 based on a misapprehension as to the physical con- 

 ditions of continental ice. I cannot help believing 

 that had Professor Nordenskjold duly reflected on the 

 necessary physical and mechanical conditions of the 

 problem, he would not have undertaken the journey 

 across the Greenland ice with the hope of finding 

 green fields in the interior of that continent. 



