SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 



63 



while North East Land is ahiiost completely ice covered (see Hoel, 

 1929). The ice tongues in Spitsbergen move very slowly, finally de- 

 bouching into the bays and fjords with glacier front walls not higher 

 than 50 feet, and this slow rate combined with the low front yields 

 only rather small icebergs. There are practically no glaciers in north- 

 western Spitsbergen which produce icebergs. The most productive 

 berg glacier known in Spitsbergen discharges at the head of Storfjord 

 and is called Xegri. but nothing is known regarding the number of 

 bergs that are calved. There are several glaciers on the eastern coast 

 of North East Land which are productive ; and King James Glacier on 

 the eastern oxtromity of Edge Island contributes a number of bergs 



A Spitsbergen Iceberg 



Figure 32. — An iceberg calved from a Spitsbergen glacier, sighted May 31, 1929, on 

 the northward side of Bear Island. This is said to be one of the largest bergs 

 sighted in the Spitsbergen or North East Land regions in several years. Its 

 dimensions of 52 feet high by 150 feet long place it as only about one-fifth tlie 

 size of the largest bergs found in the northwestern Atlantic waters. (Photograph 

 by Capt. Thor Iversen.) 



annually. Very little is known regarding the number of bergs 

 that are released each year from Spitsbergen waters because they are 

 far removed from the paths of navigation and therefore do not 

 elicit especial interest. Capt. Thor Iversen, of the Norges Fiskeries, 

 who has spent several summers in Spitsbergen waters, writes me that 

 the small bergs typical of the region drift southwestward, and nor- 

 mally can be found in fair numbers from May until October around 

 Bear Island.** The hydrographical observations of the Norwegian 



" Captain Iversen says in a letter that the summer of 1029 was quite unique in that 

 bergs and pack ice were much more plentiful than common. It is seldom for bergs to be 

 sighted from the northwest coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula, but several strayed there 

 in 1929. The drift of such ice south of Bear Island and along the Murmansk coast must 

 have been due to the unusual winds and currents that were experienced that year. It is 

 also Captain Iversen's observation and opinion that many bergs are detained temporarily 

 in their drift by the ridge which runs between Bear Island and Edge Island and Hope 

 Island. 



