"It is thus, and only thus, that we must form a just conception of a phenomenon like this great glacier. I had looked in my own mind for such an appearance, should I ever be fortunate enough to reach the northern coast of Greenland; but, now that it was before me, I could hardly realize it. I had recognized, in my quiet library at home, the beautiful analogies which Forbes and Studer have developed between the glacier and the river. But I could not comprehend at first this complete substitution of ice for water. "It was slowly that the conviction dawned on me that I was looking upon the counterpart of the great river-system of Arctic Asia and America. Yet here were no water-feeders from the south. Every particle of moisture had its origin within the polar circle and had been converted into ice. There were no vast alluvions, no forest or animal traces borne down by liquid torrents. Here was a plastic, moving, semi-solid mass, obliterating life, swallowing rocks and islands, and ploughing its way with irresistible march through the crust of an investing sea."[AL] [Footnote AL: Arctic Explorations in the Years 1853, 1854, and 1855, vol. i, pp. 225-228.] Much less is known concerning the eastern coast of Greenland than about the western coast. For a long time it was supposed that there might be a considerable population in the lower latitudes along the eastern side. But that is now proved to be a mistake. The whole coast is very inhospitable and difficult of approach. From latitude 65° to latitude 69° little or nothing is known of it. In 1822-'23 Scoresby, Cleavering, and Sabine hastily explored the coast from latitude 69° to 76°, and reported numerous glaciers descending to the sea-level through extensive fiords, from which immense icebergs float out and render navigation dangerous. In 1869 and 1870 the second North-German Expedition partly explored the coast between latitude 73° and 77°. Mr. Payer, an experienced Alpine explorer, who accompanied the expedition, reports the country as much broken, and the glaciers as "subordinated in position to the higher peaks, and having their moraines, both lateral and terminal, like those of the Alpine ranges, and on a still grander scale." Petermann Peak, in latitude 73°, is reported as 13,000 feet high. Captain Koldewey, chief of the expedition, found extensive plateaus on the mainland, in latitude 75°, to be "entirely clear of snow, although only sparsely covered with vegetation." The mountains in this vicinity, also, rising to a height of more than 2,000 feet, were free from snow in the summer. Some of the fiords in this vicinity penetrate the continent through several degrees of longitude.