68 SPITSBERGEN chap, v 



stand it. But we saw long stretches of snow ahead, and 

 believed that they would form the chief part of our way. 



Thus the north-west corner of the bay was gained, where 

 Advent Point springs from the mainland. Now we turned 

 south, ascending to traverse above a long low rock-precipice 

 that borders this part of the bay. The traverse was over 

 snow-beds and bogs, into which Spits sank up to the belly. 

 Garwood led or rather dragged her along, for we had no 

 whip or other stimulant. Pedersen and I hung on to the 

 sledge to keep it from sliding sideways down hill. All went 

 merrily enough till we reached our first gully. The slopes 

 of the soft crumbling hills in this part of Spitsbergen are 

 seamed with gullies cut out by streams that carry off the 

 melted snow from above. As yet we had no conception of 

 the amount of melting accomplished in the long spring and 

 summer days in the Arctic regions. When the thaw sets 

 in, and lasts all twenty-four hours of one day after another, 

 it reduces the snow for a considerable depth to mere slush. 

 The ground beneath remains hard frozen and slippery till 

 the last fragment of snow upon it is gone, then it too thaws 

 and turns to bog. The amount of water that pours off the 

 hills and floods the valleys, during the month when the 

 melting is at its maximum, is enormous, and denudation is 

 correspondingly energetic. Thus a stream, which by the 

 end of August will be dry, digs into a slope a gully of 

 astonishing depth, or forms on the flat a fan of wide 

 extent, rendered irregular by countless channels. It is un- 

 necessary here to enlarge upon this statement, for the course 

 of our journey made us intimately acquainted with all the 

 effects of denudation upon an unexpectedly large scale. 



The hill-side gullies at this time were filled with snow 

 to the brim, and the streams flowed down tunnels beneath. 

 In fact, the gullies were snow couloirs of gentle slope 

 wherein the snow as yet retained a certain consistency. At 



