HILLS OF EAST SPITZBERGEN. 103 



cuous objects, and visible from an immense 

 distance. 



All the lower bills of East Spitzbergen are 

 mucb of tbe same sbape and contour, and they 

 all appear to be composed of the same shaly 

 secondary limestone and sandstone, containing 

 here and there a band of coal ; but on the 

 shores of the great bays called Stour Eiord and 

 Deeva Bay, where the sea is not exposed to the 

 violence of the current and gales from the 

 N.E., the detritus brought down from the 

 mountains, instead of being perpetually washed 

 away from the base of the cliffs, is allowed to 

 accumulate ; and flowing each year, or each 

 flood, over the top of the layer akeady de- 

 posited, it gradually encroaches on the sea and 

 forms a muddy flat, which slopes at a gradually 

 increasing angle from the almost perpendicular 

 limestone cliffs to a nearly dead level. This 

 plain gets, by slow degrees, covered with 

 mosses, but is for a long time liable to be 

 deluged again with mud and shale from the 

 mountains, until the slopes of the latter get so 

 much reduced by this process, that they as- 

 sume a more permanent shape. These plains 

 are in some places three to four miles broad, 

 and although their surface may not have 



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