86 SPITSBERGEN chap, vi 



to a remote range of mountains, golden in the low bright 

 sunlight and clear soft air. 



Eastward the view was limited by a series of rounded 

 and uninteresting snowy domes. North - west were the 

 splendid mountains and great glaciers of North Fjord rising 

 above the bed of cloud that roofed Ice Fjord and Advent 

 Bay. A great blue shadow plunged from our feet, and lay 

 on the mist. At the edge of it was a small rainbow, haloing 

 for each of us the shadow of his head. Sunwards the clouds 

 shone like the sun himself ; east and west they seemed softer 

 and were less brilliant ; southward they were dark and grey. 

 The shade temperature was several degrees below freezing, 

 but the sun was so warm that it made avalanches peel off 

 the north face of the mountain. 



Study of the view around us, and of that from Bunting 

 Bluff, enabled us to perceive that the plans with which we 

 started from London must be modified, for the nature of 

 the country was utterly different from what coast-wise 

 observers had imagined. We had planned to cross Spits- 

 bergen from east to west along two or even three lines. We 

 now saw that little information of value would be attainable 

 by that method. The whole region within view was an 

 intricate mountain country broken up by a maze of valleys 

 and not containing any large level areas. To strike a mere 

 line or two across it would be an ineffectual method of 

 investigation. A closer study of some specimen area was 

 required, and this could only be accomplished by making a 

 series of expeditions to right and left, and by ascending to a 

 number of points of view — a process involving much expendi- 

 ture of time and a slower rate of progress. 



With minds at ease, and a rich harvest of observation, we 

 set forth to return. The rainbow on the snow-field was now 

 before us. Sometimes the bending of the neve brought its 

 apex within a few yards of our feet, so that the particular 



