lievieir of liereiif GeologicaJ Literdfure. 125 
and the contiguous Nurgsuak peninsula, the high coast has mostly 
rounded crests and gently curving slopes, the contour having been 
smoothed by glacial erosion. "From Svarten Huk to the Devil's 
Thumb, north of Upernavik, a portion of the contours are serrate, while 
other parts are subdued. There is no marked predominence of either 
class. The coast of Melville bay is largely formed by the edge of the in- 
land ice, which here comes down to the sea. The remainder is formed 
by promontories jutting out from the ice-sheet like dormer windows, or 
by peaks projecting like islands through the great sheet of ice. The 
Devil's ThumV) and Melville Monument are rather slender rock columns, 
standing but a few miles off the border of the present inland ice-sheet. 
From cape York northward to Inglefield gulf, subdued contours prevail 
over rugged ones ; the latter, however, are not entirely absent on the im- 
mediate line of the coast." 
The mountainous border of Greenland terminates northward at Mel- 
ville bay. Thence the border tract is a plateau with an average altitude 
of about 2,000 feet, upon which the inland ice deploys as it would on any 
lower plain, excepting where its glaciers descend in valleys from the 
summit toward the sea level. About half of the glaciers reach the sea, 
while the other half end on the land. The plateau may b3 the edge of 
a very extensive and elevated plain underlying the greater part of the 
ice-sheet. A lower and comparatively narrow peneplain is also some- 
times observable, notably in the vicinity of Godthaab, descending gently 
to Baffin bay, in which its low undulations form numerous small islands. 
Professor Chamberlin traces the following stages in the development 
of the grand tofjographic features of Greenland. "The upper plateau 
appears to signify that at some former period, not very remote geologi- 
cally, yet certainly not very recent, the west coast of Greenland stood 
some 2,000 feet lower than at present, and remained in that position dur- 
ing a period sufficiently long for the reduction of considerable tracts to 
a gradation plane, but apparently not long enough for the reduction of 
all the surface, for the bordering mountains of southern Greenland ap- 
pear to be survivals. After this partial leveling of the island, it appears 
to have been elevated to an altitude not very different from the i)resent, 
and to have stood there long enough for the development of the coastal 
plain above described. Contemporaneously with this, the valleys doubt 
less extended themselves backward into the higher country. Later, a 
further elevation appears to have ensued to the extent of two or three 
thousand feet, during which the valleys were deepened and both the 
higher and lower plains considerably dissected upon their borders. 
Subsequent to this, the land sank to its present position, about which it 
is now obviously fluctuating, for there are evidences — among which are 
raised beaches and elevated shell deposits— that it has recently been ele- 
vated, and there are also evidences -among which are sunken ruins and 
forced migrations— that it has iccently been sinking." 
In the region of Inglefield gulf, the probably Archean crystalline rocks 
which form the principal mass of Greenland, so far as it is free of ice, 
are overlain by a narrow coastal belt of sandstones and shales, which lie 
