The Student's Elements of GeologyLyell, Charles, Sir
Science
The Student's Elements of Geology
Lyell, Charles, Sir
Geology
A characteristic feature of the deposits under consideration in all
these countries is the occurrence of large erratic blocks, and
sometimes of moraine matter, in situations remote from lofty mountains,
and separated from the nearest points where the parent rocks appear at
the surface by great intervening valleys, or arms of the sea. We also
often observe striæ and furrows, as in Norway, Sweden, and Scotland,
which deviate from the direction which they ought to follow if they had
been connected with the present line of drainage, and they, therefore,
imply the prevalence of a very distinct condition of things at the time
when the cold was most intense. The actual state of North Greenland
seems to afford the best explanation of such abnormal glacial markings.
Greenland Continental Ice.—Greenland is a vast unexplored continent,
buried under one continuous and colossal mass of ice that is always
moving seaward, a very small part of it in an easterly direction, and
all the rest westward, or towards Baffin’s Bay. All the minor ridges
and valleys are levelled and concealed under a general covering of
snow, but here and there some steep mountains protrude abruptly from
the icy slope, and a few superficial lines of stones or moraines are
visible at certain seasons, when no snow has fallen for many months,
and when evaporation, promoted by the wind and sun, has caused much of
the upper snow to disappear. The height of this continent is unknown,
but it must be very great, as the most elevated lands of the outskirts,
which are described as comparatively low, attain altitudes of 4000 to
6000 feet. The icy slope gradually lowers itself towards the outskirts,
and then terminates abruptly in a mass about 2000 feet in thickness,
the great discharge of ice taking place through certain large friths,
which, at their upper ends, are usually about four miles across. Down
these friths the ice is protruded in huge masses, several miles wide,
which continue their course—grating along the rocky bottom like
ordinary glaciers long after they have reached the salt water. When at
last they arrive at parts of Baffin’s Bay deep enough to buoy up
icebergs from 1000 to 1500 feet in vertical thickness, broken masses of
them float off, carrying with them on their surface not only fine mud
and sand but large stones. These fragments of rock are often polished
and scored on one or more sides, and as the ice melts, they drop down
to the bottom of the sea, where large quantities of mud are deposited,
and this muddy bottom is inhabited by many mollusca.
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