594 Holsts Studies in Glacial Geology. 
Although the ice in the said mountainous district is everywhere 
crevasse-torn, it is not necessarily so in other localities. Where the 
underlying ground is level or only gently rolling, the moving ice 
is, no doubt, entirely free from cracks. 
The local direction of motion must, of course, to a great extent 
conform to topographical conditions, Thus, in deep valleys glacial 
striæ may be found to run in all possible directions, always follow- 
ing the course of the valley. In order to find the general direction 
of the motion of the inland ice, one must study the striz on the high 
plateaus. My observations in such localities indicate a direction 
from northeast or east-northeast. 
The vastly broken aspect of a Greenland landscape cannot be 
explained as solely a product of the erosive force of moving glaciers. 
It is true that the material produced by this erosion is only to a 
small extent left on the land—where the soil is, indeed, very thin— 
whilst by far the greater part is deposited as silt in the sea. But if 
we suppose this silt to spread over the bottom of the sea for some 
miles from the coast and to have the thickness of several rods, still 
this cannot approximately account for the enormous excavations of 
the land. These must date farther back than the glacial period. 
The glaciers may, however, have plowed up and scooped out the 
loose sediments from earlier ages in the vast valleys. 
On the inland ice occur moraines and kryokonite (glacial dust), 
besides patches of vegetable matter. The moraines are limited to the 
borders of the inland ice around the nunataks as well as along the 
coast-line. The kryokonite mostly accumulates between the 
moraines thus near to land, but is not altogether absent even from 
the high interior tracts of the ice-sheet. Vegetable matter occurs 
but sparingly on the ice. West of Kangarssuk, half a mile from 
land, were noticed some leaves of grasses, Betula, ete. They were 
not scattered, but heaped up in a pile—which seems to indicate that 
not wind, but water, had transported them to that position. 
C. The kryokonite is extensively distributed over by far the 
greatest part of the inland ice, as well as over most of the local 
glaciers, though it may occasionally be hidden under snow or Ice 
formed by the freezing of the thaw-water.! It varies, however, 
1 — Swedish smältvatten. The word, although not found in Webster, 
may serve to express the water formed at the surface of the ice by 
thawing. 
