The Ice- Sheet of Greenland. — Uphain. 149 
Two years later, in August and September, 1888, Dr. Fridtjof 
Nansen, with Ave companions, crossed this ice-sheet from east to 
west between lat. 0-1° 10' and 64° 45'. The width of the ice 
there is about 275 miles, extending into the ocean on the east, 
but terminating on the west about 14 miles from the head of 
Ameralik fjord and 70 miles from the outer coast line. For the 
first 15 miles in the ascent from the east, rising to the altitude of 
1,000 meters, or 3,280 feet, the average gradient was nearly 
220 feet per mile. In the next 35 miles an altitude of 2,000 
meters, or 6,560 feet, was reached; and the average gradient in 
this distance, between 15 and 50 miles from the margin of the 
ice, was thus about 94 feet per mile, or a slope very slighth' 
exceeding one degree. The highest part of the ice-sheet, about 
112 miles from the point of starting, was found to have an alti- 
tude of 2,718 meters, or about 8,920 feet. ■ Its ascending slope, 
therefore, in the distance from 50 to 112 miles was about 38 feet 
per mile. Thence descending westward, the gradients are less 
steep, averaging about 25 feet per mile for nearly 100 miles to 
the altitude of 2, 000 meters, about 63 feet per mile for the next 
52 miles of distance and 1,000 meters of descent, and al)0ut 125 
feet per mile for the lower western border of the ice. 
The narrative of this expedition is most admirably told by Dr. 
Nansen in two well illustrated volumes, entitled --The First 
Crossing of Greenland." The scientific results attained are pre- 
sented in an appendix of the second volume, from which the fol. 
lowing extracts are quoted: 
As to the superficial aspect of the inland ice, I may say, in the first 
place, that of crevasses we found a surprisingly small number in the 
course of our journey. On the east side they occurred only in the first 
seven or eight miles; on the west side we came across the first fissure at 
some twenty-five miles from the margin of the ice. In the interior 
tliere was no trace of them. 
Of surface rivers we foimd practically none. Some may be inclined 
to think that this was due to the lateness of the season, though this 
objection has little force, seeing that the middle of August, when we were 
on the east side, is not late in the season as far as regards the melting of 
the snow, and furthermore, that even if the rivers had disappeared 
themselves on the west coast, we should have seen traces of their cliau- 
nels. None such did we see in the interior at all, and the first we 
observed were not more than fifteen or twenty miles distant from the 
western edge. It is possible, also, that there were' minor brooks on the 
surface in the first ten miles from the eastern side. E.\cept for these 
