Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/930

 but one which a moment's reflection would surely dissipate, that bergs found in the south must all have come from the north, and that those further north must have come from the regions still farther northward. The winds and the currents waft them hither and thither, until by the force of the waves they break into fragments and become undistinguishable from the oozy fragments of floes around them. Often, however, they will ground either in the fjord or outside of it, and in this position remain for months, and even years, only to be removed by pieces calving or breaking off from them, and thus lightening them, or forced off the bank where they have touched bottom by the force of the displaced wave caused by the breaking off of a fresh berg. Ice much exposed to the sea only breaks off in small ice-calves, but not in bergs. This calving will sometimes set the sea in motion as much as sixteen miles off. The colour of the berg is, of course, that of the glacier ; but by the continuous beating of the waves on it the surface gets glistening. The colour of the mass is a dead white, like hard-pressed snow, which in reality it is, while scattered through it are lines of blue. These lines are also seen in the glacier on looking down into the crevasses, or at the glacier-face, and are in all probability caused by the annual melting and freezing of the surface-water of the glacier. Then another fall of snow comes in the winter ; then the suns of summer melt the surface to some slight extent ; this freezes, forming an ice different in colour from the compressed snow-ice of the glacier, and so on. I am aware, however, that this is a subject of controversy ; and this view of mine is only brought forward as a probable explanation, suggested to me as far back as 1861, when I first saw glaciers in the upper reaches of Baffin's Bay and on the western shores of Davis Strait, and long before I was aware that this streaked or veined character of glacier-ice had been a subject of dispute.

The greater portion of these bergs form long "streams" opposite their " ice-fjords," these streams being constantly reinforced by fresh additions from the land, poured out from the fjord. Hence certain localities in Greenland are distinguished by their " ice-streams," these localities being invariably opposite the mouths of ice-fjords, or fjords with great glaciers at their landward end pouring out icebergs. Few, if any, as I have already stated, are found on the east coast ; but on the west (or Davis Strait and Baffin's Bay side, from south to north, in the Danish possessions) the following localities, chiefly known by their native names, are situated : —

1. Sermilik ice-fjord and ice-stream in about N. lat. 60 30

2. Sermeliarsuk „ 61 32

3. Narsalik „ 61 57

4. Godthaab „ 64 30

5. Jakobshavn „ 69 12

6. Tossukatek „ 69 48

7. Great Kariak „ 70 26

8. Little Kariak „ 70 36

9. Sermelik „ 70 41