Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/925

 ing black circuit of the coastline land or islands before described, here and there infringing in little peninsulas on the ice, there the ice dovetailing in the form of a glacier on the land, and now and then the waters of a deep fjord penetrating into the ice-field, its circuit marked by the black line of coast surrounding it on either side, the eastern generally being the ice-wall of the glacier, the western being the sea. Travelling a short distance on this interior ice, it seems as if we were travelling on the sea. The land begins to fade away behind us like the shore receding as we sail, out to sea ; while far away to the eastward nought can be seen but a dim clear outline like the horizon bounding our view. The ice rises by a gentle slope, the gradient being steeper at first, but gradually getting almost imperceptible 1 , though real. In the winter and spring this ice-field must be covered with a deep blanket of snow, and the surface must then be smooth as a glassy lake ; but in the summer, by the melting of the snow, it is covered with pools and coursing streams of icy-cold water, which either find their way over the edge, or tumble with a hollow sound through the deep crevasses in the ice. How deep these crevasses go, it is impossible to say, as we could

1 During the present summer, between the 19th and 24th July, Prof. Nordenskjold and Hr. Berggren travelled thirty geographical miles on the inland ice. The point where they turned back was about 2000 feet above the sea.

a. The inland ice overlaying the whole interior of the country. b. The "moraine profonde." c. The underlying country now concealed by the inland ice. d. The present coast (the "outskirts"), covered with old sea-bottom. e. Iceberg in process of formation; &c. the glacier has protruded into the sea, ground along the bottom, but the buoyancy of the sea has not yet floated off the berg. f. Icebergs floating off. g. Iceberg capsizing and depositing carried moraine on h, the present sea-bottom, composed of Boulder-clay, angular travelled blocks, &c.

N.B. The glacier commonly does not reach the open sea directly, but enters a fjord, though, for the sake of showing its termination, in the diagram it is portrayed as if reaching the open sea at once. The two arrows show the direction of the outflow of the inland ice (a).