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,* who resided three or four years in the Danish settlements in Baffin's Bay, on the west coast of Greenland, between latitudes 69 and 73 degrees north.

     (* "Journal of Royal Geographical Society" volume 23 1853
     page 145.)

"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." At the heads of the fjords which intersect the coast, the ice is seen to rise somewhat abruptly from the level of the sea to the height of 2000 feet, beyond which the ice of the interior rises continuously as far as the eye can reach, and to an unknown altitude. All minor ridges and valleys are levelled and concealed, but here and there steep mountains protrude abruptly from the icy slope, and a few superficial lines of stones or moraines are visible at seasons when no recent snow has fallen. [Note 23]

Although all the ice is moving seaward, the greatest quantity is discharged at the heads of certain large fjords, usually about 4 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 1000 to 1500 feet in height or thickness. When these masses reach the fjords, they do not melt or break up into fragments, but continue their course in a solid form in the salt water, grating along the rocky bottom, which they must polish and score at depths of hundreds and even of more than 1000 feet. At length, when there is water enough to float them, huge portions, having broken off, fill Baffin's Bay with icebergs of a size exceeding any which could be produced by ordinary valley glaciers. Stones, sand, and mud are sometimes included in these bergs which float down Baffin's Bay. At some points, where the ice of the interior of Greenland reaches the coast, Dr. Rink saw mighty springs of clayey water issuing from under the edge of the ice even in winter, showing the grinding action of the glacial mass mixed with sand on the subjacent surface of the rocks.

The "outskirts," where the Danish colonies are stationed, consist of numerous islands, of which Disco island is the largest in latitude 70 degrees north, and of many peninsulas, with fjords from 50 to 100 miles long, running into the land, and through which the ice above alluded to passes on its way to the bay. This area is 30, 000 square miles in extent, and contains in it some mountains 4000 feet to 5000 feet high. The perpetual snow usually begins at the height of 2000 feet, below which level the land is for the most part free from snow between June and August, and supports a vegetation of several hundred species of flowering plants, which ripen their seeds before the winter. There are even some places where phanerogamous plants have been found at an elevation of 4500 feet; a fact which, when we reflect on the immediate vicinity of so large and lofty a region of continental ice in the same latitude, well deserves the attention of the geologist, who should also bear in mind, that while the Danes are settled to the west in the "outskirts," there exists, due east of the most southern portion of this ice-covered continent, at the distance of about 1200 miles, the home of the Laplanders with their reindeer, bears, wolves, seals, walruses, and whales. If, therefore, there are geological grounds for suspecting that Scandinavia or Scotland or Wales was ever in the same glacial condition as Greenland now is, we must not imagine that the contemporaneous fauna and flora were everywhere poor and stunted, or that they may not, especially at the distance of a few hundred miles in a SOUTHWARD direction, have been very luxuriant. [Note 24]

Another series of observations made by Captain Graah, during a survey of Greenland between 1823 and 1829, and by Dr. Pingel in 1830-32, adds not a little to the geological interest of the "outskirts," in their bearing on glacial phenomena of ancient date. Those Danish investigators, with one of whom, Dr. Pingel, I conversed at Copenhagen in 1834, ascertained that the whole coast from latitude 60 to about 70 degrees north has been subsiding for the last four centuries, so that some ancient piles driven into the beach to support the boats of the settlers have been gradually submerged, and wooden buildings have had to be repeatedly shifted farther inland.*

     (* "Principles of Geology" chapter 30.)

In Norway and Sweden, instead of such a subsiding movement, the land is slowly rising; but we have only to suppose that formerly, when it was covered like Greenland with continental ice, it sank at the rate of several feet in a century, and we shall be able to explain why marine deposits are found above the level of the sea, and why these generally overlie polished and striated surfaces of rock.

We know that Greenland was not always covered with snow and ice, for when we examine the Tertiary strata of Disco Island (of the Upper Miocene period) we discover there a multitude of fossil plants, which demonstrate that, like many other parts of the arctic regions, it formerly enjoyed a mild and genial climate. Among the fossils brought from that island, latitude 70 degrees north, Professor Heer has recognised Sequoia Langsdorfii, a coniferous species which flourished throughout a great part of Europe in the Miocene period, and is very closely allied to the living Sequoia sempervirens of California. The same plant has been found fossil by Sir John Richardson within the arctic circle, far to the west on the Mackenzie River, near the entrance of Bear River, also by some Danish naturalists in Iceland to the east. The Icelandic surturbrand, or lignite, of this age has also yielded a rich harvest of plants, more than thirty-one of them, according to Steenstrup and Heer, in a good state of preservation, and no less than fifteen specifically identical with Miocene plants of Europe. Thirteen of the number are arborescent; and amongst others is a tulip-tree (Liriodendron), with its fruit and characteristic leaves, a plane (Platanus), a walnut, and a vine, affording unmistakable evidence of a climate in the parallel of the arctic circle which precludes the supposition of glaciers then existing in the neighbourhood, still less any general crust of continental ice, like that of Greenland.*

     (* Heer, "Recherches sur la Vegetation du Pays tertiaire"
     etc. 1861 page 178.)

As the older Pliocene flora of the Tertiary strata of Italy, like the shells of the Coralline Crag, before adverted to, Chapter 12, indicate a temperature milder than that now prevailing in Europe, though not so warm as that of the Upper Miocene period, it is probable that the accumulation of snow and glaciers on the mountains and valleys of Greenland did not begin till after the commencement of the Pliocene period, and may not have reached its maximum until the close of that period.

Norway and Sweden appear to have passed through all the successive phases of glaciation which Greenland has experienced, and others which that country will one day undergo, if the climate which it formerly enjoyed should ever be restored to it. There must have been first a period of separate glaciers in Scandinavia, then a Greenlandic state of continental ice, and thirdly, when that diminished, a second period of enormous separate glaciers filling many a valley now wooded with fir and birch. Lastly, under the influence of the Gulf Stream, and various changes in the height and extent of land in the arctic circle, a melting of nearly all the permanent ice between latitudes 60 and 70 north, corresponding to the parallels of the continental ice of Greenland, has occurred, so that we have now to go farther north than latitude 70 degrees before we encounter any glacier coming down to the sea coast. Among other signs of the last retreat of the extinct glaciers, Kjerulf and other authors describe large transverse moraines left in many of the Norwegian and Swedish glens.