238 ON GLACIERS IN GENERAL. 



Bergen group, those of Justedal are the best known, and 

 probably the best worth visiting. Justedal is connected with 

 the inmost ramification of the intricate Sognefiord. On the 

 Fjaerlandsfiord, another branch of the same inlet, two important 

 glaciers are found, one of which terminates only 105 feet above 

 the sea level, in lat. 61. The Hardanger fiord, somewhat 

 farther south, presents one fine glacier, the Bondhuusbrae. The 

 more northern group of Norwegian glaciers commences at 

 Fondal, just within the limits of the arctic circle, where nume- 

 rous glaciers descend almost to the sea level. About lat. 70, 

 on the promontory of Lyngen, are several glaciers, and in the 

 neighbouring Jokulsfiord is one which is stated actually to enter 

 the sea, and to break off in miniature icebergs. About the 

 North Cape the mountains are not sufficiently high to afford 

 any perpetual snow. 



Iceland, with a summer temperature far inferior to that of 

 Norway, abounds in glaciers, which, however, have not been 

 very particularly described. Those of Swina-fels and Holaar 

 are stated to be large and characteristic. 



The glaciers of Spitzbergen have been minutely described 

 by Dr. Scoresby* and by M. Martins.f They appear to be 

 essentially of the same nature, and subject to the same laws as 

 those of Switzerland, but modified by the depression of the 

 snow-line, and the extreme shortness of the summer. The 

 texture is less icy, the rate of progression probably slower. As 

 the superficial fusion is not great, they descend in vast sheets 

 into the waters of the sea (as at Magdalena Bay), where they 

 form icebergs. The western coasts of Greenland appear to 

 offer the same phenomena, but on a grander scale. 



The interior of arctic North America has too even a surface, 

 and perhaps too dry and rigorous a climate, to present glaciers 

 in perfection. 



In South America, about lat. 47, where the climate is one 

 of the worst in the world, numerous glaciers, resembling probably 

 those of Iceland, have been described by Captain King and Mr. 



* Arctic Regions, vol. i. f Bibliotheque Universelle, 1840. 



