EXPLORE DEEVA BAY. 109 



Deeva Bay is marked in the charts as 

 being unexplored at the further end, and as if 

 it ran a long way up into the country ; so, as 

 it seemed quite clear of ice at present, and 

 the sloop was still becalmed, I thought this a 

 favourable opportunity for continuing the ex- 

 ploration of it to the end. I left the sloop 

 at four in the morning on the 22nd, and rowed 

 up the west side of the bay. 



These lower hills bordering the fiords of 

 Spitzbergen have a very strong resemblance 

 to the long dreary ranges of limestone hills 

 which hem in on both sides the valley of the Nile 

 from Cairo to Syene ; and this resemblance 

 exists both in their size, shape, slope, and 

 general aspect (ice and snow aside), as well 

 as in the solitude and almost total absence 

 of life and vegetation which characterises 

 them. 



About half way up this side is a glacier 

 almost extending into the water, and push- 

 ing before it a huge moraine of mud and 

 debris, the base of which is washed by the 

 sea, and renders the latter quite shallow and 

 muddy for several miles around. 



It is wonderful to observe how insignificant 

 even mountains of solid rock are compared to 



