RAISED BEACHES. 289 



All the geese and eider-ducks, and I should 

 imagine also the gulls, leave Spitzbergen in Sep 

 tember. There are no hares or other small land 

 animals, and the occasional windfall of a dead 

 deer or seal can surely not maintain the foxes 

 for seven or eight months out of the twelve. 

 Do they then hybernate like the Norway bear, 

 or lay up a secret store of sea-fowl and eggs 

 against the winter ? If the latter, it is one 

 of the most singular cases of instinct sharpened 

 by necessity to be found in nature. 



There are several well-developed raised 

 beaches around some parts of Ice Fiord. In 

 one place I observed three of these, each one 

 about eight or ten feet above the other. 



Nothing strikes a geological observer in Spitz 

 bergen more than the total absence of pebbly 

 beaches. I was especially requested by a distin 

 guished geologist to direct my attention to this 

 matter, and I did so ; but I nowhere saw, on any 

 part of the coast between Kyk-Yse Islands and 

 Ice Fiord, nor amongst the Thousand Islands, 

 anything approaching to what can be called a 

 pebbly beach. Nine-tenths of the coast consists 

 of glacier, rocks, and clay. In some places 

 there are bays with sandy beaches, and in 



u 



