372 ^ DISCOVERIES OF KOSS, 1818. 



on Nova Zembla manv cleo'rees to the southward of 

 it. Deer live and thrive in 80° latitude on Spitz- 

 bergcn, but cannot live in lb" on Nova Zembla. 

 Neither does the quantity of ice, whether formed 

 on the surface of the main ocean, or floated 

 out of the bays and rivers and from the coasts, 

 depend on the degree of latitude where it is 

 found. Ships, for instance, navigate freely every 

 year round the North Cape in the parallel of 72° 

 or 73°, and proceed along the coast of Spitzbergen 

 without impediment from ice as high up as 80^, 

 while on the opposite coast of America the sea is 

 not navigable at all for a great part of the year from 

 45^ upwards; and the parallel of Q^"" forms at pre- 

 sent the utmost limits of northern navigation on 

 that coast. 



It is a well established fact that the cold is 

 much more intense on the eastern than on the 

 western coasts of continents and islands. Iceland 

 furnishes a curious instance of this fact; the 

 whole eastern coast being a series of mountains 

 covered with ice and snow, and immense glaciers, 

 moving downwards to the very sea; while the 

 mountains and the fiords or firths on the west- 

 ern side are generally, if not always, free from 

 ice; — but what is still more extraordinary, the op- 

 posite coast of Greenland in the same parallel of 

 latitude and four degrees to the southward of it, 

 and at the short distance of one hundred and fifty 

 miles, is guarded from all approach by a perpetual 

 and interminable barrier of ice. 



