94- SPITSBERGEN chap, vi 



rally in a roughly-crystalline prismatic form, the prisms stand- 

 ing, end on, close together and opening out as the summer 

 proceeds, and the lateral restraint is removed by the thaw. 

 At first the remains of these frozen pools are seen as domes 

 of clear blue ice. Later, as the sides of the domes and the 

 interstices of the prisms melt, the rods of ice separate 

 from one another, and stand out like a sheaf of glittering 

 crystals. Of course where a glacier is forming a terminal 

 moraine, and is likewise advancing and retreating restlessly 

 from year to year, the ice-foot is mixed up with moraine 

 heaps, and a most chaotic distribution of ice, snow, water, 

 and mud results. Sometimes the ice-foot becomes buried 

 beneath moraine, and so kept from the summer's warmth, 

 when there is formed what has been well named "fossil 

 ice," the antiquity of which may be very great. Such fossil 

 ice we met with in the Sassen, Esker, and Fulmar valleys. 

 Here there was no such complication. At first we thought 

 the ice-foot was a remnant of the glacier from some former 

 stage of advance, upon which it was now pouring over in 

 renewed volume ; but the true character of the formation 

 presently became apparent. The largest ice-foot we saw 

 was below the Rabot Glacier in the Sassendal, whilst below 

 the great Ivory Glacier towards Agardh Bay there was 

 no ice-foot at all, because there was almost no river to 

 form one, an ice-foot being a function not of the glacier 

 but of the glacier stream. 



So novel a phenomenon naturally interested us greatly. 

 We wandered away from one another in pursuit of our 

 investigations. It was an uncomfortable place to roam 

 about in at this time of year, for there were so many 

 water-logged snow bogs and streams full of snow, all with 

 a white surface of deceptively solid appearance, that it was 

 impossible to find even a fairly dry route across. Still 

 Garwood managed pretty well, and arrived at the far side 



