GLACIERS. 147 



of Spitsbergen, and has the advantage of being- 

 accessible either from the north or south ; though 

 the southern channel is somewhat intricate. 



Near Dane's Gat there are several glaciers, 

 similar to those already described in Magdalena 

 Bay, the largest being about ten thousand feet 

 in length, by two to three hundred feet in 

 perpendicular height. Like the former, they 

 all occur between steep mountains, and partake 

 of the peculiarity of all the glaciers in Spitz- 

 bergen, none of them having a southern aspect, 

 but all invariably occupying such valleys as are 

 either very obliquely inclined to the noonday sun, 

 or are entirely screened from it by the surround- 

 ing hills.* Hence the formation of these stu- 

 pendous masses would appear to be the natural, 

 if not the necessary, result of the position of the 

 generating mountains ; and the reason seems to 

 be, that the heat occasioned by the radiation of 

 the sides of those mountains which are exposed 

 to the meridian sun during the summer months 

 extends over the whole surface, and is even 

 greater at the lower than at the upper parts ; 

 so that, whatever portion of the winter snow 

 may be dissolved will be carried at once into 

 the sea, without being arrested in its progress by 

 frost ; whereas, in oblique or in greatly shaded 



* See the View of Magdalena Bay, p. 45. 



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