Dec. 7, 1876] 



NATURE 



123 



up and disintegrating under the influence of the air and 

 waves ; it is fissured through and through, a large por- 

 tioa has already fallen away, exposing terraces of blue ice 

 previously submerged, and the sea around is cumbered 

 with the fragments. It is easy to see how almost any 

 eccentricity of form may be produced by the irregular 

 action of the waves upon the different sides of an iceberg 

 tilted to different inclinations. 



When an accidental hollow or other irregularity on the 

 _ irface of an iceberg directs the action of the surf on any 

 special point, a cave is speedily formed, and the effect 

 constantly increasing with the deepening of the cavity, 

 the ice is often honeycombed with caverns which pene- 

 trate far into the solid berg, and add wonderfully to its 

 beauty by their lovely colouring in shades of cobalt blue, 

 varying with every play of shade and light. The caves 

 are, however, very fatal to the iceberg. From the ice not 

 biing thoroughly rigid, whenever the support is tahen 

 away from beneath, the layers above bend and give way ; 

 vertical fissures are produced which become filled with a 

 breccia of ice and snow, often discoloured by sea-birds ; 

 the ice, instead of showing its original uniform horizontal 

 stratificati )n, is distorted into all sorts of anticlinals and 

 synclinals ; and fragment after fragment crashes down into 

 the sea. 



Fig. 2 pives an idea of the form of a beautiful vaulted 

 berg. The sea was washing through and through it ; and 

 as we passed close by, we sat gazing, entranced, at the 

 marvellous beauty of the colouring of the vaults of ice, 

 and the waves, and the snowy spray illuminated by a red 

 setting sun ; but our gorgeous iceberg was evidently 

 doomed to speedy destruction. Some glittering pinnacles 

 were the only remains of the buttresses of former arches, 

 and a quantity of debris floating round it showed that the 

 whole fabric was undergoing rapid change. 



Some few of the bergs which we saw were tilted up to 

 an angle of upwards of 50°, and in various ways — by the 

 inclination of the bergs, by the denudation of successive 

 layers by the action of the sea, and by " dislocations of 

 strata." I believe we saw at various times sections of 

 icebergs to the depth of perhaps 400 feet. All such sec- 

 tions gave simply a continuation of the same phenomenon 

 which we observed in the portion of the berg normally 

 exposed, a gradual approximation of the lines of stratifi- 

 cation and deepening of the blue colour. 



Sometimes we saw small bergs which were very irregular 

 i n form, with all marked prominences rounded off, per- 

 fectly clear, and of a deep sapphire blue. These I con- 

 ceive to be masses of ice from near the base of a berg, 

 which, from extreme shifting of its centre of weight, has 

 turned right over, and exposed the ice near the bottom, 

 in which, by melting and regelation under great pressure, 

 all structure has been lost. 



The curious question naturally arises, Shall we ever be 

 able to reach the South Pole ? With our present methods 

 and appliances I should think that the answer must be an 

 unhesitating negative. Except po?sibly somewhere in 

 the region where Ross penetrated, in 1842, to the parallel 

 of 78° to the south of New Zealand, or about Graham 

 Land, where Capt. Dallman, in 1873, continued the ex- 

 plorations of Capt. Biscoe, there seems to be no acces- 

 sible lead of land ; and Ross's southernmost point is 

 upwards of 700, and Graham Land 1,200 miles from the 

 pole. The remainder of the outline of the Antarctic con- 

 tinent appears to be a perpendicular cliff 200 to 250 feet 

 in height, without shelter, and with a heavy pack broken 

 up and kept in motion by frequent gales moving outside 

 It during the gre ter part of the year, and bouading a vast 

 expanse of glacier surface, a great part of it subject pro- 

 uably to high winds and to almost incessant falls of 

 snoAT. 



We have now learned that the North Pole, if not 

 actually inaccessible, is much more d fficult of access than 

 we imagined, even with the long roll before us of the 



gallant men who have strained through many years the 

 resources of human skill and bravery to the utmost in 

 fruitless attempts to attain the barren issue ; and we can 

 only anticipate disasters multiplied a hundred-fold should 

 the South Pole ever become a goal of rivalry among the 

 nations. C. Wyville Thomson 



NORDENSKJOLUS EXPEDITION TO THE 

 J EN I SS EI 1 



"T^HE expedition, of whose plan, equipment, and composition 

 -*■ we have already given some account, left Trom.^o in the 

 steamer Ymer, on July 25 this year, and on the 30.h entered 

 Matotschkin Scharr, where they obtained some specimens of 

 Novaya Zemlya salmon. An easy passage was made to the east 

 side, where, during a stay of twenty-four hours, the naiuralisis 

 did some collecting, dredging, &c. Leaving the Scharr on trie 

 31st, the Kara Sea was at first found quite open, but after a few 

 hours it became so blocked with loose ice in all direciions that 

 the Ymer was compelled to turn back, and was anchored on the 

 inner side of the promontory which projects from the southern 

 side of the sound, nearly half way between the entrance and 

 Gubin Bay. 



Here the sea is rich in varying animal forms, the land bleak 

 and poveity-stricken. The mountains for the most part consist 

 of black clay-slates, probably early Silurian, and grey dolomite 

 beds, in which search was made for fossils in vain. On the 

 other hand, the clay-slate is in many places full of quartz veins 

 with numerous cavities, whose crystalline contents gave occa- 

 sion to the unfortunate Tschirakin's statement that he had found 

 here a block of stone set full with the most brilliant, beautiful, 

 and valuable precious stones, for which, after his death, he was 

 vehemently censured by his chief, Rossmylov, who sought in 

 vain fur the supposed treasure. 



In one respect this part of Novaya Zemlya is of great geolo- 

 gical interest ; for here are to be seen no fewer than six clearly- 

 marked beaches, situated at different heights one above the other, 

 and showing that the land hereabouts tias been elevated during 

 the very latest geological pcfriod at least 500 feet. With the 

 exception of certain parts of Greenland, where a considerable 

 sinkirig of the land has taken place during recent centuries, 

 a similar raising of the land has been observed in most other 

 Arctic regions, and this raising of the land has without doubt 

 played a very important part in the great geological changes 

 which have occurred on the surface of the earth since the close 

 of the Tertiary period. For the Swedish observer the pheno- 

 menon besides has quite a special interest, inasmuch as attention 

 wai first called to it in Sweden more than a century ago, and 

 it then gave occasion to an impassioned discussion between 

 those holding different opinions, which is well known in the 

 history of science. 



Matotschkin is surrounded by high, bold mountain ridges and 

 summits, which continue to occupy the interior of the island for 

 more than thirty English miles south of the sound. Farther 

 south the mountain tops disappear completely from the interior, 

 and the land passes into a level high-lying plain, nearly free of 

 snow during summer and sloping gently towards the east coast 

 and the Kara Gate, till it terminates most frequently with a pre- 

 cipitous face towards the sea. 



A broad ice-free belt of water having in the meantime been 

 formed along the east coist of Novaya Zemlya, the expedition 

 took advantage of it, and i-ailed along shore. The greater pari 

 of the ice-fields were, however, nof/ quite ro ten, and it was clear 

 that they would completely melt away during the remaining part 

 of the summer. 



Partly by ice, partly by fog, the Ymer was prevented making 

 right across the sea, and it was not till the I2th that the ice- 

 belt was so broken up that they could steam on round White 

 Island, pabt the Gulf of Obi to the mouth of the Jenissei, 



We sighted land here on the 15th, Dr. Nordenskjold goes on to 

 state, thus exactly a year after the rocks at Dickson's Harbour were 

 first seen from the Proven. This was some hours sooner than the 

 dead reckoning promised, which at first was ascribed to the in- 

 fluence of an easterly current in the parts of the Kara Sea we 

 had just traversed. When we came nearer, however, I was sur- 

 prised to see before me a plain which was unbroken by any 

 "berg-asar," though I knew, from last year's observation, that 



' Abstract of Prof. NordenskjiiiJ's Riport in the GSteborgs Ilan.hh 

 n.tnLii^, October ^4. 



