TOPOGRAPHY. The land surface Of the Arctic region has been as yet but incompletely explored, although the unremitting interest in Arctic ex ploration is gradually adding to our knowledge of its extent and details. The loftiest region is Greenland, along the east and west coasts of which there are mountains rising from 3000 to 8000 feet above sea level, culminating in Peter mann Peak, with an estimated altitude of 11,000 feet. The name "Arctic Highlands" was given to that portion of the American Continent which lies between Hudson's Bay and the mouth of the \laekenzie River, reaching far below- the Arctic Circle. The district lies partly within and partly without the barren or treeless stretches of northern North America. The southern portion has elevations of 1700 to 2000 feet above sea level. The portion north of Great SlaVe, Great Bear, and Athabasca Lakes has a gentle and regular slope toward the Arctic Ocean. The usage of the term "Arctic Highlands" may, perhaps, be extended so as to include the highlands west of Smith Sound. The name was also applied by Ross in 1818 to the region around Cape York (latitude 76° to 78°, longitude 07° W.), in Greenland; and the most northern Eski mos, who live on the seacoast at the foot of these mountains, have until recently borne the name of "Arctic Highlanders," given to them by Ross. The northern part of Seward Peninsula is
characterized also by a broken topography, with mountains rising 5000 feet or more above sea level. Banks Land and other large islands off the coast of the North American Continent, in cluding Baffin, Ellesmere, Grinnell, and Grant lands, are comparatively low, with rounded mountains in the interior. In Baffin Land the central plateau is from 600 feet to 800 feet above the sea, and isolated mountains attain a height of 2000 feet. In the eastern part of Si beria the surface is broken by low mountain ranges and by wide river valleys. The portion of Siberia lying west of the Yenisei River, however, is a low, almost unbroken plain, covered with a dense growth of moss, and containing numerous and extensive swamps, features that are compre hended under the general term of tundra (q.v.). Portions of Franz-Josef Land and Crown-Prince Rudolf Land (latitude SO° to 83°) are elevated, the mountains and plateaus rising 2000 feet or more above the sea. Upon these plateaus. and that of Spitzbergen, and particularly upon that of Greenland, extensive "ice-caps" have formed. The outer edges of these masses of ice are forced through the fiords in the form of glaciers. which discharge icebergs. See GLACIER, and the gen eral article GEOLOGY.