14N 7/"' Anil I'li'tl H (rriihK/tKt. S..|)t('inber, ISKl 
adviuu'i'tl to ;i (lislaiirc of alioiil Kid mill's from tlu' c'(lo;i> of the 
ice. attaining an altitude of about 7. 500 feet. Describing the 
first ten miles of the ice. Peary writes: — •• In detail, the surface 
was, as a rule, roughly granular in texture, affording firm, sure 
footing, interrupted here and there by crevasses, some open and 
some covered with a snow arch ]\v patches of soft, deep snow 
in the depressions between the hummocks, and y)y patches of 
hard ice cut 1)V nearly parallel furrows, as if made by a huge 
plough." The camp at the end of their advance was in a shallow 
basin of the nece of snow which covers all the inner portion of 
the ice-sheet, there having, to use Peary's words. •' the consist- 
ency of fine granulated sugar as far down as I could force my 
alpenstock (some six feet).'" 
The margin and the interior of the ice-sheet are characterized 
1)V Pear}' as follows: 
Wherever the ice projects down a valley in a long tongue or stream, 
the edges contract and shrink away from the warmer rocks on each side, 
leaving a deep canon between, usually occupied by a glacier stream. 
* * * * Higher up, along the unbroken portions of the dam [L e. 
enclosing mountains] where the rocks have a southern exposure or rise 
much above the ice, there is apt to be a deep canon between the ice and 
the rocks; the ice-face sometimes 60 feet high, pure, pale-green, and 
flinty. In another place the ice-face may be so striated and discolored 
as to be a precise counterpart of the rock opposite, looking as if torn 
from it by some convulsion. The bottom of the canon is almost invari- 
ably occupied by water. * * * * Still farther up, at tlie very crest 
of the dam, the ice lies smoothly against the rocks. 
As to the features of the interior beyond the coast-line, the surface of 
the " ice-blink " near the margin is a succession of rounded hummocks, 
steepest and highest on their landward sides, which are sometimes pre- 
cipitous. F'arther in, these hummocks merge into long flat swells, 
which in turn decrease in height towards the interior, until at last a flat, 
gently rising plain is reafihed, which doubtless becomes ultimately 
level. 
In concluding the narrative of tliis journey', after describing 
the needful outfit. Peary remarked: — ''To a small part}' thus 
equipped, and possessed of the right mettle, the deep, dr}', un- 
changing snow of the interior * * * is an imperial highway, 
over which a direct course can be taken to the cast coast.'' It is 
also suggested that the unexplored northern shore lines of Green- 
land may be most readily mapped by expeditions across the high 
inland ice. 
