The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

172 TIIE EUROPEAN ISLANDS OF THE AECTIC OCEAN".deposits in the dried bed of a glacial torrent, about H miles from the shores ofKing's Bay, facing the north end of Prince Charles Foreland. This coal,which burns very freely, with little ash, is rich in fossil trees, illustrating themildness of the former climate.On the coasts there is no lack of volcanic rocks, presenting here and therevaried and picturesque outlines. They consist largely of hyperite, which Nordenskjoldregards as ashes crystallized under heavy pressure, and in several placesthey seem to have been distributed as lava over the trias and Jura systems.Hyperite cliffs are numerous on both sides of Hinlopen Strait, and several islandsare entirely composed of this substance.Such are the so-called Thousand Islands,south of Stans Foreland, besides the various headlands projecting into GenevraBay. These rocks contain a certain proportion of iron, which oxidizes whendenuded, and in some places affects the magnetic needle.The gently sloping rocks are covered for most of the year with snow, whichdisappears only in summer from the lower heights on the coast.The mean limitof the snow-line has been variously determined by naturalists, and it may be saidto vary indefinitely with the nature and inclination of the surface, the aspect of theland, and other climatic conditions."Where wind and sun combine to lay bare theslopes, the snow will disappear to a height of 1,600 feet, and in the Seven IslandsNordenskjold found none lower than 980 feet. In some favoured spots vegetationrises to 2,000 feet, but at this elevation the snow generally persists throughoutthe year.In such a climate the streams are necessarily intermittent.In some places smallrivulets flowing from the glaciers to the low-lying coast lands seek a channel throughthe shingle to the sea ;but the large valleys of the plateau are filled with glaciers,all of which descend quite to the shore, some even projecting beyond its limits.Most of them are very slightly inclined, and generally very short compared withtheir breadth, several occupying the whole space from headland to headlandalong the shores of wide inlets. The largest, on the east side of North-EastLand, forms a frozen mass over 60 miles long. At the southern extremity aglacier presents a sea frontage of 12 miles, but others seem to be little morethan cataracts suddenly congealed, as, for instance, that of Magdalena Bay, whichis only 800 feet wide on the beach. Most of them end abruptly on the coast, andon the west side they melt rapidly at contact with the warm currents from thetropics, which have here a mean temperature of 40° Fahr. The icebergs from timeto time detached from them are often of considerable dimensions, one observed in1773 by Phipps off the north-west coast rising 50 feet above, and plunging130 feet below the surface.The east side of the large island and of North-East Land, washed by the polarcurrents, is mostly ice-bound, and generally of more difficult access than the west,which is indented by numerous sheltered inlets. These gulfs and fiords remainmostly open to the sea, from which, however, they are partly cut off by masses ofdetritus or submarine moraines, known to the fishers by the name of " seal banks."Like those of Switzerland, the Spitsbergen glaciers have been subject to various