i 879-J Relations to that of the Glacial Epoch . 31 
condition of things, Dr. Rink’s description of the Greenland 
ice would probably have been regarded as the extravagant 
picture of a wild imagination. 
Greenland Ice-sheet. — There is no reason to conclude that 
the northern hemisphere possesses, or perhaps ever pos- 
sessed, an ice-cap like the southern. Greenland, however, 
possesses on a smaller scale a condition of things similar to 
that of the Antarctic continent. The same general principles 
which we have been considering in relation to the Antarctic 
ice-sheet must hold true in regard to the ice of Greenland. 
The Greenland ice-sheet, like the Antarctic, must be 
thickest at the centre of dispersion and thinnest at the edge. 
Greenland is more accessible than the Antarctic continent, 
yet — with the exception of Dr. Hayes and Prof. Nordenskjold, 
and a small party under the command of Lieut. Jensen, 
R.D.N., recently sent out by the Danish Government — no one, 
so far as I am aware, has ever succeeded in penetrating to 
any great distance into the interior over the inland ice. 
Nevertheless, the state of things as recorded by these explorers 
affords us a glimpse into the condition of the interior of that 
continent. They all found by observation, what we have 
already seen follows as a necessary result from physical con- 
siderations, that the upper surface of the ice-plain under 
which hills and valleys are buried gradually slopes upwards 
towards the interior of the continent. 
Professor Nordenskjold states that at 30 geographical 
miles from the coast, the extreme point reached by him, 
he had attained an elevation of 2200 feet, and that the inland 
ice continued constantly to rise towards the interior, so that the 
horizon towards the east, north, and south was terminated 
by an ice-border almost as smooth as that of the ocean.* 
Dr. Hayes and his party penetrated inwards to the distance 
of about 70 miles. On the first day they reached the foot of 
the great Mer de Glace ; the second day’s journey carried 
them to the upper surface of the ice-sheet. On the third 
day they travelled 30 miles, and the ascent, which had been 
about 6°, diminished gradually to about 2°. They advanced 
on the fourth day about 25 miles, with the temperature 30° 
below zero. “ We had attained,” he says, “ an altitude of 
five thousand feet above the sea-level , and were 70 miles from 
the coast, in the midst of a vast frozen Sahara immeasurable 
to the human eye. There was neither hill, mountain, nor 
gorge anywhere in view. We had completely sunk the strip 
of land between the Mer de Glace and the sea, and no object 
met the eye but our feeble tent, which bent to the storm.” f 
* Geol. Ma?., 1872, vol. ix M p. 360. 
f Open Polar Sea, p. 134. 
