346 Limits of petpetiial Snow in the North. [MaTj 



VI. 



There still remains a great blank in my observations; I mean the 

 depression of the snow line between Fillefieldt and Talvig. It is 

 DO small pleasure to me to be able to till up this blank by means of 

 a set of very accurate observations. Dr. George VVahlenburgh, of 

 Upsala, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Stockholm, to whom 

 science lies under so many obligations, travelled as a botanist in that 

 country, and in 1807, by means of excellent instruments with 

 which he was furnished, determined the height of the great ice 

 mountain of Kiolengehirges. He has consigned his importfitit 

 observations in a treatise which has been pul)lished in Jswedin, 

 embellished with views and maps, by the care of Baron Hermelin, 

 to whom we lie under such obligations for our knowledge of the 

 whole of Sweden.* Dr. Wahlenberg found the highest mountain 

 on the north side of the polar circle, between Norwegian Salfens- 



Jiord and the Swedish settlement Quickjack, in the westernmost 

 part of Lulen Lappmark. The barometer stood on the south side 

 of Sulilelma, which he had ascended on the 14th of July, 1807, 

 at 24"387 English inches : the thermometer at 42*8'^. At the same 

 time I saw a corresponding barometer at the level of the sea stand 

 at 29-992 inches ; the thermometer at oO 4°, This gives us the 

 height of Sulitelma 5675 English feet above the sea.f The moun- 

 tain rises a great way into the region of perpetual snow; and in the 

 hollow between it and a mountain on the north not quite so high, 

 there appears a magnificent glacier, not ver\' steep, but of enormous 

 breadth. It extends to Lairo, a full Swedish mile, a place which 

 is still situated upon the higli i^^ountainous country. The Laplanders 

 graze the whole summer with their reindeer upon the edge of this 

 glacier. They call it Lairo geikna; for in Lapland the name 

 geikna or jakiia is applied in the same way as the Iceland word 



jockal, the Norwegian word jisbrae, the Tyrolese word ferner, and 

 the Swiss word glelcher fglacierj. With Sulitelma begins a range 

 of ice mountains, which extends for a whole degree of latitude, and 

 unites with the s'e?p Ridatjock above the Tyffiord. Here there are 

 many mountain vhose name terminates in geihia, from all of 

 which glaciers proceed. But this is the only place in the north 

 where glaciers are frequent. On the south side they are not to be 

 met with till we come to the mountains of Jmtedal, in the 62d 

 degree of latitude. 



Wahlenberg carefully examined the height of the snow line on 

 this mountain ; and the reader will not be a little surprised when 

 he learns that according to his observations this line is not higher 



• Brrdttelie om ni'dttnin^r fcr att bestamm.i Lappska fjiillens hogd ocli Tem- 

 peralur. SlockliDlin, 1808. With a map, and three Alpine views. 



+ Dr. W ilileiiberg, in his instructive booi, gives the height 5513 feet; but a> 

 the C';rresponding buromcter at Altengaard flands accidentally 0'125 inch bclovr 

 ''the Bv.cdish barometer, as I afterwards ascertained by dilferent observations, I 

 bare corrected this diCfereuceia the statenieut n'bicb 1 have given in tbetext. 



