34 



I lUirrjOF NANSEN. 



M.-X. Kl. 



Fig. 15. An old shore cliff at the inner margin of a strandflat of low level, on Verleegen 

 Hook, Spitsbergen [Nansen, 1920]. 



During storms with high-water, especially in late summer and autumn, 

 the débris accumulated on the bench may be more or less washed away. 

 The débris will also be moved outwards by the creeping motion in the 

 accumulations of ice and snow themselves, and by the transport caused 

 by the alternate melting and freezing of water along their inner margins. 



It might be objected that the ice formed on the beach is sea-ice and 

 will not therefore have much erosive power. But on the one hand, the 

 sea in these regions is often covered by nearly fresh surface-layers, as 

 mentioned above, and on the other hand, when the sea-ice grows old, 

 especially during summer, the brine gradually sinks out of it, and its 

 melting water becomes practically fresh, so that, for instance, it makes 

 excellent drinking water. Moreover, the ice on the beach is generallv 

 covered by deep snow-drifts which remain during a great part of the 

 summer. 



This form of shore erosion may be studied at work in its different 

 phases in Spitsbergen. We may there see how it is now forming ledges 

 along the present shores, and we may see how it has l)een able to form 

 broader benches or small strandfiats as demonstrated by Fig. 15. where 

 there is an old vertical shore cliff of disintegrated rock, with an erod ng 

 accumulation of snow at its base, on the inner side of a quite low strandflat. 



After this chapter on the formation of the strandflat, had been written, 

 my attention has been called to a paper by T h o r o 1 f \^o g t [1917] which 

 he has kindly sent me. It is of great interest for our subject as it de- 

 scribes recently formed shore-ledges, cut just above high-tide level in very 

 steep rock walls along the coast of Kvænangen Fjord in northern Norway. 



