Ix THE SEA 369 
Mount Lubbock an island suddenly appeared, 
which he was quite sure was not to be seen 
two or three hours previously. He was much 
astonished, but it eventually turned out to be 
a large iceberg, which had turned over, and so 
exposed a new surface covered with earth and 
stones.” : 
The condition of the Arctic regions is quite 
different. There is much more land, and no 
such enormous solid cap of ice. Spitzbergen, 
the land of “ pointed mountains,” is said to be 
very beautiful. Lord Dufferin describes his 
first view of it as “‘a forest of thin lilac peaks, 
so famt, so pale, that had it not been for 
the gem-like distinctness of their outline one 
could have deemed them as unsubstantial as 
the spires of Fairy-land.” 
It is, however, very desolate; scarcely any 
vegetation excepting a dark moss, and even 
this goes but a little way up the mountain 
side. Scoresby ascended one of the hills near 
Horn Sound, and describes the view as “‘ most 
extensive and grand. A fine sheltered bay 
was seen to the east of us, an arm of the same 
on the north-east, and the sea, whose glassy 
2B 
