Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 33.djvu/214

176 176 ON THE FJORDS ETC. IN NORWAY AND GREENLAND.

That all the ice-fjords are of considerable depth is evident from the existence of the bergs, which descend to a very great depth ; but that the Jakobshavn Fjord is shallower near its mouth is evident from the fact that the great bergs run aground there. Opposite to the mouths of some of the Greenland fjords in Davis Strait, shoals and shallows are known just as in Norway ; for example, before the Godthaab Fjord, as shown by the charts, there is a shoal of from 20 to 30 fathoms deep ; before the fjords of the district of Sukkertoppen, another 30 fathoms deep ; and before the Hoist ensborg Fjord, shoals, in some places only, from 14 to 17 fathoms deep. I proved the ex- istence of the last by soundings as I sailed along the coast ; the depths near the fjords and near to the land are considerable.

On comparing the configuration of Greenland, Norway, and Scot- land, we find on the whole the same features along the coasts which are intersected by fjords, viz. beds of glaciers or rock-basins with detritus of glacial origin in front ; and the lakes in South-eastern Norway, like the lakes along the south sides of the Alps, seem only to differ from the fjords in their situation above the level of the sea. I have thus summed up the most important facts which are knit together by the theory of the glacial formation of rock-basins ; this throws light on a long series of facts and observations, and further investigations will certainly augment their number.

[Note. — The above paper was written by the author in English. This, though in general remarkably accurate as regards grammar, was not very idiomatic, and so might have repelled readers from the study of the valuable observations which he has recorded. Ac- cordingly, at the request of the Council of the Geological Society, I undertook to prepare the paper for the press. In doing this I found it better to recast most of the sentences, and I have slightly con- densed the matter by the occasional omission of clauses which were either repetitions or concerned with well-known details. As, how- ever, I entirely dissent from some of the author's conclusions, I have been most careful to suppress nothing which was of the least importance in regard to them, and to express his argument as clearly and accurately as possible. If I have failed to do this, the cause has been that I have mistaken his meaning — a thing always possible when an author has written in a language not perfectly familiar to him. I may add that Mr. Helland appears (p. 163) to have mis- understood a part of one of my papers (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvii. p. 312). The Alpine cirques which I have described are of various sizes ; some, indeed, small, but others equal, so far as I know, to most in Norway. T. G. Bonnet.]