"^ ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS, 



Besides extraordinary courage and strength requi- 

 site in the adventurer, such an attempt would need 

 the utmost powers of exertion, as well as the mor.t 

 irresistible perseverance. Frederick INIartens, in 

 his excellent account of a " Voyage to Spitzbergen," 

 undertaken in the year I67I, describes some of the 

 cliffs as consisting of but one stone from the bottom 

 to the top, or as appearing like an old decayed wall, and 

 as smelling very sweet, where covered with lichens. 

 In Magdalene Bay, the rocks he describes as lying 

 in a semicircular form, having at each extremity 

 two high mountains, with natural excavations, 

 " after the fashion of a breast-work," and at their 

 summits, points and cracks like battlements. 



Some of the mountains of Spitzbergen are well 

 proportioned four-sided pyramids, rising out of a 

 base of a mile or a mile and a half, to a league 

 square ; others form angular chains, resembling the 

 roof of a house, which recede from the shore in pa- 

 rallel ridges, until they dwindle into obscurity in the 

 distant perspective. Some exhibit the exact resem- 

 blance of art, but in a style of grandeur exceeding 

 the famed pyramids of the East, or even the more 

 wonderful Tower of Babel, the presumptive design 

 and arrogant continuation of which, was checked by 

 the miraculous confusion of tongues. An instance of 

 such a regular and magnificent work of Nature, is 

 seen near the head of King's Bay, consisting of 

 tliree piles of rocks, of a regular form, known by 



