284 SPITSBERGEN chap, xxi 



this as a glacier twenty-three miles wide is to give a false 

 impression. The whole land area between Wijde Bay and 

 Hinloopen Strait is covered with an ice-sheet, which would 

 flow on all sides into the sea were it not for the configu- 

 ration of the margin of the land. A range of hills encloses 

 it on the west, so that only three ice-tongues, as we shall 



EAST SHORE OF WIJDE BAY. 



hereafter see, actually reach the waters of Wijde Bay. To 

 the north, the plateau edge similarly obstructs the ice, and 

 only permits one outlet, down which it flows into the head 

 of Treurenburg Bay. On the east side the rock-walls are 

 fewer, and the ice can flow freely down between the rocks 

 of Hecla Hook on the north, and the Lomme Bay hills, 

 and again (not to mention small ice-tongues) south of 



