JOURNEY BY SLEDGE TO THE FLIC ELY FJOED. 319 



where was the boundary of vegetable life so marked as in 

 our own Alps, wliicli may arise from the fact that, owing 

 to the length of the Arctic day, elevation above the sea 

 less sensibly affects vegetation than with us. 



The view from the top was beyond description beau- 

 tiful. It stretched over Hochstetter's Foreland and 

 Shannon, as far as Pendulum Island. We were at once 

 convinced of the impregnable solidity of the pack-ice, as 

 well as that the Fligely Fjord (as we had conjectured) 

 did really open into Ardencaple Bay. Only to the west 

 the horizon was entirely closed by massive peaks about 

 twenty miles off. 



Several readings of the quicksilver barometer gave the 

 height of our mountain as a little over 4050 feet. After 

 three hours' measuring, Payer had finished with the 

 panorama, by which time the temperature of 31.8° Fahr. 

 was most unpleasant. 



In the meantime Captain Koldewey had gone back in 

 a westerly direction on an excursion to the shoulders of 

 a mountain, upon which he thus remarks in his day- 

 book : — The mountain was nearly the highest in the 

 neighbourhood, and as the weather was particularly fine 

 and clear, we had a fine wide prospect. I went some 

 nautical miles further westward along the ridge, in order 

 to gain a better glimpse of the interior. Towards the 

 south-west, the mountain fell precipitously in a deep 

 ravine ; beyond this the land was undulatory, and the 

 outer horizon seemed bounded by a mountain chain 

 running north and south. Towards the north was a long 

 valley stretching east and west, and also to the south 

 lay a deep basin with rugged sides. This basin was 

 particularly free from snow, only the liighcst peaks being 



