Glacier JVork. — Scott. 219 
feet highj are said to rise from the most thoroughly glacier 
covered region on the mainland of the continent. Hundreds 
of glaciers gather in the vicinity ; the largest one of which is 
the Seward, the principal tributary of the Malaspina. 
It mav further be said that North America has existing 
glaciers of all the known types, excepting possibly the pe- 
culiar Scandinavian variety. Examples of the Alpine type 
have been cited ; the Piedmont type has several representa- 
tives in Alaska, one of which is the Malaspina Iglacier. 
Greenland furnishes perhaps the solitary example of a conti- 
nental ice sheet that can be investigated ; and the so-called 
"tide-water" glaciers are numerous both in Alaska and Green- 
land. 
Comparative size. 
Peary's estimate is undisputed that about 600,000 square 
miles of Greenland is under a glacier of the continental type. 
Many of the tongues of this glacier extending into the sea 
through the ice fjords are of immense proportions, being hun- 
dreds of miles long in some cases, ajid several miles broad. 
The Antarctic region has as yet been comparatively little 
explored. In a summary on the region, Dr. J. D. Murray 
considers that the southern pole is surrounded by a continent 
of about 4,000,000 square miiles, being larger than Aus- 
tralia.* The land rises abruptly from the sea, having hills 
ranging from 3,opo to 7,000 feet in hight with some peaks 
that are considerably higher. These are said to be covered 
with ice more uniformly and to- a greater depth than in tlie 
Arctic region, and even at the coast, bare low lands or rocky 
cliffs are uncommon. The ice sheet descends from the slopes 
into the sea, and from it the great tabular bergs are formed, 
-and also the immense ice cliffs which preclude satisfactory 
explorations into the interior- The ice is supposed to be from 
1200 to 2000 feet thick. This estimate is made chiefly from the 
bergs that extend from 150 to 200 feet above the water, con- 
sidering that ice floats with approximately nine tenths of its 
volume submerged. The sea is so covered with floating ice in 
that region that navigation is practically impossible ])eyond a 
latitude of 65 degrees. 
*Geog. Jour. 1894. Vol. 1. 
