294 SPITSBERGEN char xxi 



As it was they only came upon us with slowly-accumulating 

 force, for a cloud bulged down on to the water a few miles 

 on and blotted out the end. All along the west side stand 

 a row of fine mountains, mountains increasing in majesty 

 of form as one advances south. They are penetrated by 

 numerous valleys, some long and level, others short and 

 steep, others again dividing into many branches of attractive 

 topographical complexity. All are lonely ; most have glaciers 

 plastered on their sides or at their heads, but the floors, 

 except near Grey Hook, are usually flat and boggy, like 

 the floor of Advent Vale. 



The new snow, lying down to sea-level, only lasted a 

 little way into the bay. Farther in the snow-line rapidly 

 rose to about iooo feet above sea-level. The north coast 

 and its immediate neighbourhood seem to have a much 

 heavier snow-fall than the interior. The aspect of the deep 

 snow-beds covering valleys and plateaus, the snow-slopes 

 and small glaciers, and the general barrenness all along the 

 north, show that the snowy condition is habitual. Equally 

 habitual seems to be the more temperate weather a few 

 miles south, for there is a fair amount of vegetation on 

 which plenty of reindeer support themselves. The con- 

 trast is most striking ; not a few miles only, but several 

 degrees of latitude might be imagined to separate these 

 neighbouring zones. The coast is the most Arctic region 

 we saw ; the bay appears relatively temperate. 



The mountains along the west side of the bay are, as 

 I have said, magnificent. They resemble one another in 

 type, and so do the valleys that sunder them. The east 

 shore is less uniform and less generally fine, but the average 

 of its scenery is raised to a high level by certain splendid 

 prospects. In the main, as already stated, the New Fries- 

 land peninsula, dividing Hinloopen Strait from Wijde Bay, 

 consists of a high icy plateau with a glaciated rock-front 



