636 



NATURE 



{Oct. 30, 1879 



to say, from cracks which have in consequence of changes 

 of temperature many times over opened and come together 

 again, provided (key were not prevented by the falling 

 in of debris. This has, however, often taken place, 

 considerable masses of sediments, formed chemically or 

 mechanically, have frequently collected in the cracks, and 

 during the immense duration of geological ages they 

 have hardened and been metamorphosed to solid crystal- 

 line rocks— limestone, quartz, felsite, pegmatite, &c." 



To make up for the disappointment of not being able 

 to push beyond the Seven Islands, Nordenskjold made a 

 journey round the coast of North East Land, and right 

 across the island from east to west. " North East Land," he 

 tells us, "forms the most northerly of the four large islands, 

 into which Spitzbergen is divided. Its extent from north 

 to south is seventy-five and from east to west about 

 ninety-two geographical miles. The whole interior is 

 occupied by an ice-sheet 2,000 to 3,000 feet thick, to which 

 the fall of snow (and rain) during summer and winter 

 brings new material and which accordingly would be 

 unceasingly increased, if the mass of ice did not, as is 

 the case with all glaciers, flow out into the sea slowly but 

 without intermission. The principal direction of the ice- 

 stream in North East Land is towards the east, and the 

 whole of the east coast is therefore occupied by a single 

 precipitous ice-wall, insurmountable from the sea, which, 

 being nowhere interrupted by rocky heights or tongues 

 of land, forms the broadest glacier or skridjokel known 

 to man. It is, for instance, considerably broader than 

 the Humboldt glacier in Greenland described in such 

 lively colours by Kane. Northwards, however, the 

 ice-sheet of North East Land terminates with an even and 

 gentle slope, which sometimes reaches the sea, but gene- 

 rally leaves a small stretch of ice-free land along the coast. 

 On this side there is no obstacle to an advance into the 

 interior, at least from precipitous slopes." 



With regard to the glaciers which cover the surface of 

 this island, Nordenskjold writes :— 



" Like the glaciers of Switzerland, of Greenland, 

 and of Scandinavia, the glaciers of Spitzbergen are in- 

 terrupted by clefts or fissures which often extend per- 

 pendicularly through the whole mass of ice several 

 thousand feet thick. The occurrence of these fissures 

 stands in close connection to the motion of the glacier, 

 and there is therefore a smaller number to be met with 

 where the glacier is spread over an extensive level field 

 without interruption from rocky heights. Accordingly we 

 had reason to suppose that clefts or fissures would not in 

 any specially gi-eat number intersect the way we had 

 chosen and I hoped besides that all the crevasses would 

 have been filled with snow during the snow-storms of 

 winter. This supposition was so far correct, inasmuch 

 as fissures do not here occur in such numbers or of such 

 size as in that part of the inland ice of Greenland which 

 I examined along with Dr. Berggren in 1870 — but deep 

 almost bottomless openings do nevertheless occur in 

 numbers sufficiently large to swallow up us and our 

 sledges. They were the more dangerous as they were for 

 the most part concealed by a fragile vault of snow, so that 

 even when we stood on the edge of the cleft, it was only 

 by boring with an ironshod stick, very often first by our- 

 selves falling in, that we could assure ourselves of 

 neighbourhood, direction, and extent." 



In spite, however, of the innumerable concealed 

 crevasses which they had to pass, the journey across the 

 glacier-bound island was safely accomplished. The 

 snow, he found, at a depth of four to six feet, passes into 

 ice, being changed first to a stratum of ice-crystals, partly 

 large and beautiful to the eye of the crystallographer, then 

 to a crystalline mass of ice, and finally to a hard homo- 

 geneous glacier ice, in which, however, there could still 

 be observed numerous cavities filled with air, compressed 

 by the pressure of the overlying ice. When the ice-wall 

 becomes on the melting of the ice too weak for the 



pressure of the inclosed air, these holes break up with a 

 pecuhar crackling sound, which in summer is continually 

 to be heard from the pieces of glacier ice floating about in 

 tlie fjords. 



Many other extremely interesting observations were 

 made on this journey as to the nature of Arctic land-ice. 

 For example Nordenskjold says : — 



" In many respects there is a very essential difference 

 between the ice-field over which we now travelled and 

 the inland ice-field in Greenland, which was visited by 

 me in 1870. The reason of this may perhaps be in 

 a great degree the fact that in North East Land we 

 wandered over a kind of neve region, that is to say, 

 over a part of the glacier where the surface is occupied 

 by a layer of snow which does not melt away during 

 summer, while in Greenland at the beginning of the 

 month of July the snow upon the surface of the glacier 

 was on the contrary already nearly completely melted. 

 No trace of the glacier lakes, the beautiful and abundant 

 glacier streams, the fine waterfalls and fountains, &c., 

 which occur everywhere on the Greenland inland ice, 

 could be observed here, and the configuration of the 

 surface showed that such forms never occur, or only to a 

 very limited extent. The melting of the snow clearly 

 goes on upon Spitzbergen on too inconsiderable a scale for 

 such phenomena to arise." Another curious phenomenon 

 of [this Spitzbergen ice was an area near Cape Mohn 

 which was intersected by canals which for the most part 

 ran parallel with each other, at some places at a distance 

 of only 300 feet. The depth was up to 40 feet, the breadth 

 30 to 100. " Sometimes, also, there occurred other de- 

 pressions, bounded in all directions by precipitous sides, 

 of greater depth than the glacier canals, but of limited 

 extent ; these, perhaps, may most fitly be called by 

 the name given them by the sailors — docks or glacier 

 docks." With regard to the cause of these curious 

 phenomena Prof. Nordenskjold writes : — 



" The inland ice of North East Land was at the time 

 of our visit too much covered with snow for me to make 

 out with complete certainty the way in which the glacier 

 canals originate. That they were not river channels was 

 clear. For they were much deeper than the river channels 

 on the Greenland inland ice, where, however, the melting 

 of the snow must proceed on a much more considerable 

 scale than on Spitzbergen, and they occur in too close 

 proximity at certain places (while at others they are 

 completely absent) for them to be the beds of the 

 channels of the streams, certainly very inconsiderable, 

 which are produced here during the height of summer. 

 There is a strong probability, on the other hand, that they 

 originate from faults in the ice, strongly resembling those 

 that are observed in the solid strata of the eanh, and 

 which, there as here, derive their origin from the alternate 

 expansion and contraction of the strata or the ice in 

 consequence of variations of temperature." 



While Nordenskjold was out on this sledge journey the 

 work at Mussel Bay was still carried on. Soon after 

 Nordenskjold' s departure Wykander commenced a series 

 of pendulum observations. The tidal observations were 

 also extended. Five minute observations were carried on 

 at least a whole hour twice a day, at ebb and flood. 

 After the long, dreary, and trying winter, our readers can 

 easily imagine how welcome was the sight of Mr. Leigh 

 Smith's yacht the Diana, steaming into the bay on June 

 12, with an abundant supply of much-needed comforts 

 and luxuries. 



From what we have written it will be seen that Mr. Leslie 

 has been able to bring together from the wealth of material 

 which exists on these various expeditions of Prof. Nor- 

 denskjold, enough to render his volume one of general inte- 

 rest and great scientific value. We need not follow him in 

 his narrative of Nordenskjold's two journeys in 1875 and 

 1876 to the mouth of the Yenissei, for the purpose of 

 proving that a cea-route from Europe along the north 



