Glaciers and Glacial Radiants — Claypole . 
81 
huge masses of floe-ice far surpassing in size any of those seen 
by Nares in what he has somewhat poetically termed the Paheo- 
crystic Sea may also he readily granted. But when all this has 
been conceded the result falls almost infinitely short of a huge 
polar ice-cap thousands of feet in thickness and covering the 
whole of the arctic and part of the north temperate zones. 
Greenland also according to our present knowledge does not 
appear to extend in one continuous mass far to the northward 
of the great Humboldt glacier, in lat. 80°. Above this line it 
seems to pass into an archipelago by the meeting of the deep 
fiords from the two coasts, so that even of the Greenland ice a 
certain part may actually flow off that so-called continent to 
the northward into a polar sea. All this however must be left 
for the decision of further investigation.* 
Meanwhile we may consider it plain from the indications 
above set forth that the conditions were not favorable for the 
production of a vast polar ice-cap of fabulous thickness and al¬ 
most continuous down to low temperate regions. 
I have already quoted the opinion of Dr. George M. Dawson 
on the direction of the ice-flow from the region of Hudson bay. 
It is consequently with very great interest that I have read a 
paper of his, published in August last, (1888) detailing the 
results of some investigations made in British Columbia during 
the summer of 1887. 
Dr. G. Dawson had previously shown that a vast glacier once 
existed in British Columbia and the adjoining portions of the 
United States, covering with its confluent ice-sheets all the in¬ 
terior plateau between the Coast Range and the Rocky moun- 
*Since the above sentences were written there has come to hand the re¬ 
port of the last expedition to this greatest of glacial radiants now existing 
in the northern hemisphere. From the scanty anticipatory details thus 
far received (the explorers being caught by the lateness of the season and 
■compelled to remain at Gotthaab till next spring) we are able to see plain 
ly why the cold of Greenland is so intense and why that country is so pro¬ 
lific a parent of glaciers and ice-bergs. The adventurous ice travelers 
crossed on snowshoes from the eastern coast in latitude about 64° to the 
western coast in nearly the same degree. They at. first intended to reach 
Christianshaab in latitude 68° but severe snowstorms compelled them to 
•change their course and take the shorter route. Even at this compara¬ 
tively low latitude, the leader, Dr. Nansen reports an altitude of 10,000 
feet and a temperature in September of —40° to —50° C. 
With these conditions prevailing it is not surprising that Greenland 
should lie a powerful glacial centre. 
