Glaciers and Climate of Spitzbergen, 95 



passage till I had ascended to the vicinity of the snow line : there it became 

 necessary to proceed with the greatest possible caution, for the snow having 

 become deeper and more general, hid under the almost uniform surfece the 

 site of danger. Where the snow completely filled the rents, as was very oftea 

 the case, the danger was diminished ; and though sometimes plunged to the 

 haunches, yet I easily extricated myself, but it sometimes happened, that 

 only a thin covering was drifted across the mouth, incapable of sustaining any 

 weight ; one of these had well nigh proved fatal to me, for whilst, with cau- 

 tious steps, I moved forward, on a sudden my support gave way, my extend- 

 ed arms, and the resistance afforded by my gun, suspended me for some se- 

 conds between the opposing brinks, over a fearful chasm. After a few dan- 

 gerous struggles, I was enabled to extricate myself. It is impossible to de- 

 pict the feelings of this awful moment, which were in nowise lessened, when, 

 having gained the firm brink, I viewed the dark abyss which had, but a mo- 

 ment before, threatened me with destruction. My fears magnified my dan- 

 gers tenfold ; and, for a while, deprived me of the resolution to move, till 

 somewhat recovered from my panic. I hesitated whether I should proceed or re- 

 turn. At length, considering that half the mass and many dangers were behind 

 me, and the boat waiting on the beach before me, to which there was no other 

 passage but across the iceberg, I moved on, and almost crept out the rest of 

 my way, and happily reached the beach in safety, where the boat had been 

 waiting for a length of time for my arrival. 



These particulars 1 have been induced to detail, with a view to coiToborate 

 what I have stated regarding the position of the snow. It will appear, that 

 a thawing process was in operation chiefly in the vicinity of the sea : That, 

 there, the snow was dissolved, and the ice in a melting state, furnishing wa- 

 ter to the streamlets flowing underneath : That, as I ascended inland, the 

 snow was first met with in patches, and at length became the uniform cover- 

 ing of all the upland country. Mr Scoresby says, vol. i. p. 103., " The up- 

 per surfaces of icebergs are generally concave, the higher parts are always 

 covered with snow, but the lower parts (meaning the seaward extremity) in the 

 latter end of every summer present a bare surface of ice." Now, if such was 

 the aspect which this country presented during the warmest month of a milder 

 season than is common in Greenland, when more ice had disappeared from 

 tlie Arctic Sea than the oldest fisherman remembered, how is Mr Scoresby's 

 statement to be reconciled with it ? 



But the actual condition of Spitzbergen not only contradicts- Mr Scoresbv's 

 statement, by demonstrating unequivocally, the permanency of the snow, and 

 consequent lowness of temperature ; it also points out the insufficiency of the 

 means, the conjoint operation of which, he thinks, produces this fancied 

 warmth. A statement of these is found, Arctic Regions, vol. i. p. 125., in the 

 following terms : " The weather, in the months of June, July and August, 

 is much clearer at Spitzbergen than it is near the neighbouring ice, where 

 most of my observations on temperature were made ; and, as such, the tem- 

 perature of these months on shore must be warmer than at sea, and so much 

 higher, indeed, as is requisite for occasioning the dissolution of the snow, even 

 on the tops of the mountains, and this is no doubt the fact ; for, besides the 

 increase of temperature produced by the prevalent clearness of the atmos- 



