26 
towards the sea measures about 500 feet, and I can scarcely 
recall anything more trying to the nerves than an hour I once 
spent on one of them while in solitary pursuit of a Bear, 
whose footprints I had tracked in the snow. The vast per- 
pendicular fissures with their glistening sides of azure ice, 
which one had to jump or climb across, were calculated to 
suggest unpleasant ideas of the effect of a slip or a false 
step; and the terrific reports, like the booming of a thousand 
cannon, made one fancy that the whole mass was being rent. 
These glaciers are of great interest to the Geologist, giving 
an idea of how England must have looked during the Glacial 
Epoch; indeed the entire appearance of Spitbergen gives one 
a very fair representation of the Glacial period which imme- 
diately preceded our present one, when the whole of North 
Europe, as far as 58° of north latitude, was more or less 
entirely enveloped in ice. One’s first impression on landing 
in Spitzbergen is one of utter desolation—of bleak death ; 
no blade of verdure gladdening the eye; no sound of life 
greets the ear; all around is the silence of the tomb. One 
might imagine oneself in an extinct world. It is only after a 
close investigation that signs of vegetation can be detected— 
here a hardy moss ; on the dark grey rocks a yellow lichen, 
while nestled under some sheltering stone may be found the 
downy Cerastium alpinum (Mountain Chickweed), or the tiny 
bright yellowed Dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens) ; while in 
favoured spots, frequented by seabirds, may be found the 
Ranunculus, Cochlearta, several grasses, and occasionally the 
Yellow Poppy (Papaver nudicale). The only plant at all ap- 
proaching the character of a tree is the Salzx reticulata, one 
of the smallest of the Willow genus; this tiny plant also 
grows high up on the Alps, and I may here remark that while 
plants collected at places just about the Arctic circle, such as 
Hammerfest, North of Iceland, &c., will be found to corres- 
pond with those just below the line of perpetual snow on the 
Alps and Pyrenees, those found in Spitzbergen correspond 
with Alpine plants above that line. The remaining plants are 
mostly of very minute size, and have to be very closely 
searched for; thus it was for a long time imagined that the 
flora of Spitzbergen consisted only of mosses and about half 
a dozen flowering plants, but this number has been gradually 
increased by successful voyagers, until it has reached the 
