142 BEDS OF SNOW — GLAZED SURFACE. 



under the latitude 78°, at an elevation as great 

 as it is upon the Carpathian Alps in 49Jr°, while 

 in the intermediate latitudes, in 71°, for instance, 

 it descends to two thousand four hundred feet, 

 which can hardly be. There will be much diffi- 

 culty, I apprehend, in determining this line at 

 Spitzbergen ; it is certainly not above fourteen 

 hundred feet in latitude 79^° ; while, on the 

 other hand, it far surpasses the elevation at 

 which it would be placed by theoretical com- 

 putations ; one of which fixes it at four hundred 

 and fifty feet. 



Almost all the valleys in Spitzbergen, which 

 have not a southern aspect, are occupied either by 

 glaciers or immense beds of snow. These beds 

 afford almost the only feasible mode by which 

 the summits of the mountain ridges can be 

 gained ; even these are very steep ; and in de- 

 scending by them extreme care is necessary to 

 avoid being precipitated from the top to the 

 bottom, especially when the snow has been ren- 

 dered hard by a succession of thawing and freez- 

 ing. This process frequently takes place in the 

 summer, and occasionally glazes the surfaces so 

 highly, that when the sun shines they reflect 

 a brilliant lustre, and give to the coast a curious 

 and pleasing aspect, which, though upon an in- 

 comparably more extensive scale, brings to the 



