In icon view when the contents of a directory do not all fit in the window, it should be scrolled horizontally rather than vertically.
As described in a Debian report:
"If icons are listed vertically (Options -> Display -> Order
(small|large) icons vertically) the window is still scrolled vertically,
meaning that a single column of icons is longer than the height of the
window. In effect this means icons are listed horizontally and
vertically at the same time.
When icons are ordered vertically, the scrollbar should be at the bottom
rather than the right of the window"
See 3544152 for workaround (though it’s still a bug here – and there …)