island. It was this which received the first and strongest impact of the ice-stream, causing it to divide east and west round that insurmountable obstacle. Consequently its southern side is steeper and wilder than that of any other range in the neighbourhood. Generally it seems to me, that the fact of the southern faces being the steepest may be precisely the effect of the extraordinary force of the ice-erosion which attacked them from the south, whereas the northern slopes lay on the lee side away from the ice-stream, and thus experienced no pressure from it, or at all events a mere trifling pressure. The higher peaks and summits of the ranges thus lifted themselves like islands above the ice-stream, which need not here have been more than a few score meters thick. All the same the absence
of all real or unmistakable evidences of glacial action demands that the greatest caution must be exercised in drawing conclusions even from the general features of relief in this lacustrine region. For even though all glacial evidences have been wholly obliterated by the intense weathering and denudation which are now going on, it is fair to infer, that the forms which these mountains now exhibit have to no slight extent been occasioned by the weathering and denudation which have taken place since the glacier-arms receded, and became confined to the exceedingly small areas that they now occupy.
Meanwhile we steered at first diagonally across one of the largest basins into which the lake is divided, and towards the north-western extremity (S. 5 t° W.) of the little loaf-shaped island. This time the trip was favoured by glorious weather, the lake was almost like a mirror, and it was only now and then that its surface, on which there was a wonderful play of colour, was slightly ruffled. Thus there was nothing to prevent or impede my soundings or measurements of velocity.
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