54 VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 



straits ; and a few general observations may suf- 

 fice to exhaust all that is interesting in its appear- 

 ance. 



The general aspect of this gloomy and sterile 

 country, affords a scene truly picturesque and 

 sombre. The shores are rugged, bold and terrific, 

 being in many places formed by lofty, black, inac- 

 cessible rocks, some of which taper to exceedingly 

 high points, and are altogether bare, and almost 

 destitute of vegetation. The entire face of the 

 country exhibits a wild, dreary landscape, of amaz- 

 ingly high * sharp-pointed mountains, some of 

 which rear their summits above the clouds, and are 

 capped with strata of snow, probably coeval with the 

 creation of the world. 



" So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of frost,) 

 Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coast : 

 Pale suns, unfelt, at distance roll away, 

 And on th' impassive ice the lightnings play ; 

 Eternal snows, the growing mass supply, 

 Till the bright mountains prop th' incumbent sky; 

 As Atlas fix'd each hoary pile appears, 

 The gather'd winter of a thousand years." 



• The altitude of one near the Black Point, south end, was 

 found, by the megameter, to be 1503 yards. Phipps' Voyages, 

 p. 87. 



