Dr Martens on the Glaciers of Spitsbergen. 291 



the minimum l°.ll.- In the seas of Spitzbergen, even under 

 S0 D N. Lat., I never found the temperature of the open sea 

 below + 0°.7 at the surface, and almost always it was higher 

 at -f- 1°.0. We should, therefore, err, were we to draw in- 

 ferences respecting the icy ocean from Baffin's Bay ; and even 

 though ulterior researches should prove that the glaciers of 

 the latter place advance into the sea by sliding along the 

 bottom, that would determine nothing against those of Spitz- 

 bergen, the shores of which are washed by an equatorial cur- 

 rent of warm water, as we shall attempt to prove elseAvhere. 

 Causes of the progression of the Spitzbergen Glaciers. — The 

 glaciers of Switzerland descend to the plain by a progressive 

 and continuous movement ; this is a fact admitted by every 

 one. This movement is very perceptible during the warm 

 season, but it does not altogether cease in the winter. De 

 Saussure* and Albert de Iiallert have demonstrated this, and 

 the destruction of the village of Randa, in the Haut-Valais, 

 overwhelmed by a glacier from the Weisshorn, which fell from 

 about 2000 metres, on the 27th September 1819, furnishes a 

 lamentable proof of it. J But if authors are agreed as to the 

 fact, they are far from being so with regard to the explana- 

 tion of it. De Saussure,§ Escher de la Linth,|| and Andre de 

 Luc, attribute this progression to the weight of the ice and 

 the sinking produced by the melting of the lower surface rest- 

 ing on the ground. Ever since the time of Gruner % a third 

 cause has been admitted, namely, the expansion of the water 

 when passing into a solid state. Latterly this opinion has 

 been more explicitly stated by T. de Charpentier,** and Prior 



* L. c. § 538. 



t Quoted by De Luc ; note on the Glaciers of the Alps (Biblioth. Univ. 

 de Geneve, May 1839, p. 142), and Jameson's Philosophical Journal, vol. 

 xxviii. p. 15. 



t Bericht von der Zerstoerung des Dorfes Eanda von Vcnetz (Gilbert's 

 Annalcn der Physik, t. 64, p. 201). 1820. and Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal, vol. iii. p. 274.) 



§ L. c. § 535. 



K Gilbert's Annalcn der Physik, t. CO, p. 113. 1821. 



^f Description des Glaciers de la Suisse, p. 327. 1770. 

 ** Gilbert's Anmdcn der Pkyrifc, voLlxiii. p. 388. 



