Glaciers and Climate of Spitzbergen. 97 



that of the frozen territory ; not only from the great affinity which melting 

 snow has for caloric, but from the gelid state of the soil itself. 



Thus, it may be easily conceived, that the general temperature of Spitz- 

 bergen is always low, and that the sun does not elevate the thermometer 

 much above the freezing point. I do not say that his power is inconsiderable ; 

 for his presence in the firmament constitutes the difference between summer 

 and winter, producing a range of temperature of probably 70* or 80*. In 

 winter it falls to 40* or 50° below zero, but in summer it may be above freez- 

 ing ; indeed, on the snowless grounds in the vicinity of the sea, the tempe- 

 rature is sometimes elevated to between 40* and 50* : this, however, I do not 

 consider as general, but as confined to the skirts of the land, where the warmer 

 sea breeze has dissolved the snow, furnishing an earthy sheltered soil, for the 

 suns rays to impinge on ; and this seems the more probable, as, towards the in- 

 terior, where the sun acts exclusively, the snow is perpetual, it is also sup- 

 ported by atmospheric phenomena, such as I witnessed during my visit. The 

 wind blew from the ocean, and though serenity prevailed there, so that our 

 ship lying about a couple of leagues in the ofTmg, was always in view, yet a 

 very dense mist enveloped the land. The cause of such appearances, though 

 it mi^ht be partly looked for, in the intermixture of strata of air of different 

 temperatures, and in different states of humidity, might chiefly originate in 

 the difference between the temperature of the warmer air coming from the 

 sea, and frigid surface of the soil. As the wind from southern latitudes, 

 such as prevails in June, July, and August, passes over a sea, the tempera- 

 ture of which during summer, when free from ice, is elevated a few degrees 

 above freezing, it becomes loaded with moisture. In its course towards the 

 coast it i^ neither interrupted by land ; nor, does it encounter a colder body 

 than that from which it imbibed its humidity; consequently, though saturated, 

 it continues serene, but as soon as interrupted by frozen mountains, or lands, 

 or seas, covered with snow and ice, its temperature is reduced, and being no 

 longer able to hold its moisture in solution, gives birth to mist, and hoar- 

 frost, shrouding the atmosphere with obscurity. These phenomena are well 

 illustrated by the climate of Spitzbergen. That the adjoining sea is more 

 temperate than elsewhere i*i the Arctic ocean, is not only established by ob- 

 servation, but is proved by the more scanty production of ice all along the 

 western shores of the island, and is probably caused by the warmth of the 

 feeble remnant of the Gulf Stream, which having skirted the coasts of Scot- 

 land and Norway, passes on to Spitzbergen, and is lost among the currents in 

 the frozen ocean. The Sea freezes more tardily in consequence of this, and 

 a remarkable gulf, or open sea, extending even to the 80° of northern lati- 

 tude, lying in the direction of this current, and called the Whale Fishers' 

 Bight, is thereby produced. And what strongly points out the fact is the cir- 

 cumscribed limits of the icebergs on the western shores at Spitzbergen. They 

 all terminate at the beach ; whereas in Baffin's Bay, and on the east coast of 

 Old Greenland, where the temperature of the water is low, icebergs genera- 

 ted m the valleys, stretch out into the sea, and, in the process of time, furnish 

 repeated crops of those mountainous masses, found afloat on the ocean. In 

 the sea of Spitzbergen, however, these are never met with, for the higher 

 temperature of the water limits the glacier which produces them at the beach. 

 APRIL— JUNE 1827. r 



