SPITZBEHGEN. — SCENERY. 109 



of Greenland. Thus, the extent of surface occupi- 

 ed by each iceberg, is limited by the mountains on 

 three sides, and by the sea, in a measure, on the 

 fourth ; but as to its thickness, there seems no na- 

 tural obstacle to its perpetual increase. 



Spitzbergen and its islands, with some other 

 countries within the Arctic circle, exhibit a kind 

 of scenery which is altogether novel. The princi- 

 pal objects which strike the eye, arc innumerable 

 mountainous peaks, ridges, precipices, or needles, 

 rising immediately out of the sea, to an elevation 

 of 3000 or 4000 feet, the colour of which, at a mo- 

 derate distance, appears to be blackish shades of 

 brown, green, grey and purple ; snow or ice in striae 

 or patches, occupying the various clefts and hollows 

 in the sides of the hills, capping some of the moun- 

 tain summits, and filling with extended beds the 

 most considerable valleys; and ice of the glacier 

 form, occurring at intervals all along the coast, in 

 particular situations as already described, in prodi- 

 gious accumulations. The glistening or vitreous 

 appearance of the iceberg precipices ; the purity, 

 whiteness, and beauty of the sloping expanse, form- 

 ed by their snowy surfaces; the gloomy shade pre- 

 sented by the adjoining or intermixed mountains 

 and rocks, perpetually " covered with a mourning 

 veil of black lichens," with the sudden transitions 

 into a robe of purest white, where patches or beds 



