Dr Martens on the Glaciers of Spitzbergen. 161 



those in the interior of the country. The accounts of voyagers 

 who have visited these latitudes, such as those of Martens of 

 Hamburg, Phipps,* Scoresby,t Parry, J Latta,§ and Keilhau,|| 

 are quite at one in regard to this matter. During the two 

 voyages of the Recherche, in 1838 and 1839, I had an op- 

 portunity of studying the glaciers of Bell Sound, Magdalena 

 Bay, and the seven icehills which lie to the north of Prince 

 Charles's Island. Then appearance strongly reminded me of 

 those of Switzerland and Savoy, which I had visited in four 

 successive journeys. It has appeared to me that the compa- 

 rison of glaciers situated in countries so different, and in lati- 

 tudes so remote, would not he void of interest to geologists, 

 and would help to solve some of the questions which M. E. 

 de Beaumont has put to us in his excellent instructions.^ 



At Bell Sound, in the Bay Recherche, there were two gla- 

 ciers ; one of smaller size, on the west, which we shall call the 

 glacier de la pointe a fix renards ; the other to the south, which 

 we shall designate the principal glacier or Great glacier 

 of Bell Sound. At Magdalena Bay, we remark on the right 

 as we enter, that is to say on the south, two glaciers, that of 

 the Entree, and that of the Pointe aux tombeaux, then the gla- 

 cier du fond de la bale, on which the greater number of obser- 

 vations have been made. There are still two others, one to 

 the north, the other to the south, but they were of small size, 

 and did not descend to the sea ; to these we shall seldom refer. 



Extent. According to Scoresby,** the two largest glaciers of 

 the island are that of the South Cape and another to the north 

 of Horn Sound. The portion bordering on the sea coast is 

 eleven miles long.tt Then come the seven glaciers, which, on 

 an average, may be each two miles, since they extend, in a 



* Plan of Fairhaven, with the island adjacent ; in a voyage towards the 

 North Pole. 1773. 



t An Account of the Arctic Regions, 1820, vol. i. p. 94. 



\ An Attempt to reach the North Pole. See the chart of the northern 

 part of Spitzbergen. 



§ On the Glaciers of Spitzbergen ; Jameson's Edinburgh New Pliiloso- 

 phical Journal, vol. iii. p. 91. 



i Oest og Vest-Finmarken, 1831, p. 135. 



• Voyage en Islande et au Greenland de la corvette La Beeherehe,t. i. p. 

 421. 



** L. c. t. 1. p. 102. ft 1 mile = 11562 metres. 



VOL. XXX. NO. LIX. JANUARY 1841. L 



