no relation to the minor depressions, which were all choked up with ice and reduced to one uniform level.
Continental Ice of Greenland.
In support of this view, he appeals to the admirable description of the continental ice of Greenland, lately published by Dr. H. Rink, of Copenhagen,[1] who resided three or four years in the Danish settlements, in Baffin's Bay, on the west coast of Greenland, between latitudes 69º and 73º N. 'In that country, the land,' says Dr. Rink, 'may be divided into two regions, the "inland" and the "outskirts." The "inland," which is 800 miles from west to east, and of much greater length from north to south, is a vast unknown continent, buried under one continuous and colossal mass of permanent ice, which is always moving seaward, but a small proportion only of it in an easterly direction, since nearly the whole descends towards Baffin's Bay.' On reaching the heads of the fiords which intersect the coast, a perpendicular wall of ice, 2,000 feet thick, is seen, beyond which the ice of the interior rises by a succession of steps, twenty-five of which were counted by Rink (but of which there are known to be still more), all of them leading up to as many icy platforms, the ridges and valleys being levelled up to one uniform plane, and concealed by these tabular masses of ice.
Although all the ice is moving seaward, the greatest quantity is discharged at the heads of certain large friths, usually about four miles wide, which, if the climate were milder, would be the outlet of as many great rivers. Through these the ice is now protruded in huge blocks, several miles wide, and from 1,000 to 1,500 feet in height or thickness. When these masses reach the friths, they do not melt or break up into fragments, but continue their course in a solid form
- ↑ Journal of Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxiii. p. 145, 1853.
