144 Polar Explorations. 
grow in favored spots, on the margin of the sea. On the 
eastern side of the island, immense icebergs stand in the 
ravines like castellated towers, and being of a beautiful green 
color, diversified by the strata of the cliffs, offer a highly pic- 
capa copaninaan While the Hecla waited for the party 
nthe ice, the temperature was milder than it had been 
found i in the islands of Baffin’s, or the frozen coasts of Hud- 
son’s Bay. On the western coast there is a remarkable 
tract of open sea, where the whalers resort long after the 
waters in the lower latitudes are frozen. This is attributable 
to the remnants of the gulph stream, as it sweeps aroun 
at es Cape, before it is lost in the frozen ocean. 
n many particulars, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, the North 
asap Islands, and all the coasts and lands discovered 
beyond the latiendss of 68° and 70° north, bear a strong- 
er resemblance to each other than more southern parallels 
where genial seasons, and the assiduities of man, modify 
their aspects. 
r surfaces are seldom thawed more than four or 
er almost as soon. The subsoil is almost impenetrably frozen 
to a great depth, in some instances to fourteen and eighteen 
feet. The absence of the sun for four months, during which 
‘‘ the bear dozes in his icy cave”’ or with all other ale beings 
retreats to southern —— the cold, and abov 
ful stillness which cannot be realized, esthout, scm wit- 
nessed, are ceculeticion common to them all, as are _ 
fogs, and rains, and Jasrling sunshine of summer. The w 
ter lasts ten months, leaving but two that can be relied anil 
for navigating the seas or exploring the coasts. 
Spitzbergen, according to Com. Phipps, is in 79° 56’ N. lat. 
The south end of the island is formed of high, barren, black 
rocks, without the least mark of vegetation, the whole island 
bristled into high peaks, which are in most parts covered 
with snow “rising above the clouds.” In this as in Melville 
island, when the summer commences, the changes are ve- 
rapid. In aweek from the time when not a drop of water 
could be obtained for drinking, without melting snow by the 
fire, torrents were rushing through — pines and the sur- 
face full of pools, and streams of wate 
Melville island, whose north coast isin lat. 75° 14’ N. long. 
113° W. was traversed i in various y pay 
