chap, in TO SPITSBERGEN 4 5 



both sides of the island. Being composed of glacial 

 debris deposited as a kind of submarine boulder clay, its 

 consistency is loose and treacherous. Though for the most 

 part still covered with snow this was melting so rapidly, 

 now that the long Arctic day had set in, that the whole 

 surface had been converted into a species of snow bog. 

 During the six weeks which followed we had ample oppor- 

 tunity of studying the peculiar characteristics of these bogs, 

 half snow, half water, and wholly abominable, but this walk, 

 being my first experience of them, made perhaps the greatest 

 impression upon me. 



Here and there low domes of mud, from which the 

 snow had melted, afforded a firmer resting-place for the 

 foot. The formation of these protuberances by the swell- 

 ing of the saturated ground under the expanding action 

 of frost, and the consequent formation of shrinkage cracks, 

 approximately hexagonal in shape, during the dry season, 

 is a very characteristic feature of these lowland flats. Pro- 

 gress over this kind of ground was nearly as irritating as 

 the obstacle race over loose moraine by candle-light, so 

 frequently involved by an early start in the Alps. As I 

 plunged up to the knees in the liquid snow bogs, splashed 

 to the eyes, I caught myself quoting remarks which I re- 

 member hearing dropped by the man furthest removed from 

 the candle on one of the above occasions. After nearly 

 an hour and a half's tramping I gained the scree slopes of 

 the mountain, and commenced a diagonal ascent to the foot 

 of a projecting rib. This west side of the mountain is 

 decidedly steep, and the nearly vertical buttresses are inter- 

 sected by steep gullies, at that season still filled with snow. 



Never did I come across a mountain in such a terrible 

 state of repair ; step after step gave way, and I do not 

 think that during the whole of the ascent to the arete, a 

 single hand or foot hold could be called really safe. Having 



