September io, 1896J 



NA TURE 



All 



line of the wing-tips does not lie horizontally, but obliquely. 

 so as to describe in moving, a cone, apex downward. This slant 

 gives, through the resistance of the air, a certain degree of 

 rigidity to the system represented by the soaring and circling 

 bird, which corresponds to the rigidity that holds the parts of 

 the top together, and prevents them from flying off in tangents. 



Being myself a zoologist, and not a mathematician, I cannot 

 venture to state this hypothesis otherwise than in the shape of 

 a question ; perhaps one of the mathematical readers of Nature 

 will kindly take the trouble to answer it. 



Czernowitz, August 23. R. vox Lendenfei.d. 



THE CONWAY EXPEDITION TO 

 SPITZBERGEN. 



THE expedition organised by Sir Martin Conway for 

 the exploration of the interior of Spitzbergen left 

 London on June 2, and first sighted the island on June 

 17, the exact tercentenary of its discover)' by Barentz. The 

 northern ice sheet having broken up exceptionally early 

 this year, the floes off the western coast of Spitzbergen 

 were unusually heavy, and somewhat delayed the arrival 

 in Advent Bay. The expedition landed the stores there 

 on June 20. In accordance with the plan of operations 

 arranged, the members divided into two parties : one 

 party, consisting of Sir Martin Conway, Mr. E.J.Garwood, 

 a well-known geologist and Alpine photographer, and the 

 writer, proceeded to cross Spitzbergen to the east coast. 

 The other party, composed of Mr. Trevor Battye, the 

 ornithologist with the expedition, and Mr. H. E. Conway, 

 the artist, cruised about Ice Fjord and its two chief bays, 

 in order to collect birds and make sketches. 



Till the present year very little was known of the 

 interior of the country. The coasts have been carefully 

 surveyed by many expeditions, of which those of Parry 

 and of various Swedish explorers, notably the series 

 organised by Baron Nordenskicild, are of the first 

 importance. But hitherto the only contributions to our 

 knowledge of the interior were those of the late Gustav 

 Xordenskiold and M. Rabot. The former marched for 

 three days across the ice-sheet from Hornsund to Bel 

 Sound, along a line parallel to the west coast and some 

 miles inland. M. Rabot made a three days' excursion up 

 a valley going inland from the head of Sarsen Bay. With 

 these exceptions, exploration had been limited to the 

 coast, and to within a day's march of it. Sir Martin 

 Conway therefore took out two ponies and sledges, with 

 which to provision some inland camps. The ponies 

 answered well, but the sledges broke down repeatedly, and 

 thus greatly delayed progress. 



The principal geographical work of the expedition was 

 the first crossing of Spitzbergen, from Advent Bay to 

 Agardh Bay. The country traversed was mapped by Sir 

 Martin Conway, while his two companions worked out 

 the geology of the country and made collections of its 

 flora and of its very limited fauna. Subsequently the 

 whole expedition sailed northward to the Seven Islands, 

 and through Kinlopen Strait and across Olga Strait to 

 near King Charles' Islands. .An effort to complete the 

 circumnavigation of Spitzbergen was nearly successful, 

 but failed owing to the passages into Sta Fjord being 

 blocked by fast ice. Mr. Garwood and Mr. Battye as- 

 cended Hornsund Sind, the highest peak in .Spitzbergen. 

 In regard to the biological results, it is too early to 

 estimate their value, for novelties can only be e.xpected 

 among the invertebrates, which have not yet been 

 examined. The only land mammals are the bear, arctic 

 fox, and reindeer, of which the last are abundant. Birds 

 are individually numerous, but the species are few ; of the 

 twenty- five authentically recorded species, we saw all but 

 the snowy owl {Nyctca nh'ca). One addition to the list 

 might have been made, had we been able to carry a gun 

 across the island ; for we saw an unrecorded species on 

 the shore of Agardh Bay. Several dredge hauls were 



NO. 1402, VOL. 54] 



made in Advent Bay and Hornsund, yielding various 

 species of worms, mollusca, Crustacea, ophuiroids, &c. 



Botanical collections were made during^ the traverse of 

 the island in order to contrast the flora of the inland 

 valley, of the high plateaus, and of the nunataks, with 

 that of the coast. The flora is remarkably uniform, and 

 the influence of height has less effect than those of 

 situation and season. The species found on the mountain, 

 summits in the middle of the summer were the same as 

 those found on the coast at the beginning of the spring. 

 As the season advanced the species first found in flower 

 on the lowlands and in sheltered valleys were succeeded 

 by another set ; but at any time it was only necessary to 

 seek exposed and barren positions, or to climb above the 

 snow line, to find the first flora still in flower. 



Spitzbergen offered better opportunities for geological 

 than for either zoological or botanical work. The rock 

 sequence includes representatives of the Archaean, Lower 

 Palaeozoic, Devonian, Carboniferous, Trias, Jurassic, and 

 Middle Tertiary. The coast series has been described 

 by many workers, including Keilhau, Torell, Loven, 

 Lamont, Nordenskiold, Nathorst, de Geer, and others ;; 

 but as the interior had not been visited, we had there a 

 fresh field of work. In this I had the good fortune of 

 the co-operation of Mr. E. J. Garwood ; together we 

 mapped the belt of country between Advent Bay and 

 Stor Fjord, and made collections from each of all the 

 geological systems that occur in Spitzbergen. Our work 

 was greatly facilitated by the simplicity of the geology of 

 the country ; the sections are numerous and clear, and 

 the structure is often shown with diagrammatic clearness. 



Our best opportunity for the study of the Archaean 

 rocks was given by the bare cliff sections at Walden 

 Island, one of the Seven Islands situated in lat. 80' 38'. 

 Here we found that this series was formed of a group of 

 schists which have been invaded by two sets of intrusive 

 gneisses ; great blocks and seams of the schists are 

 included in the gneisses, while veins from the latter cut 

 upward into the schists. 



The general stratigraphical sequence has many points 

 of interest. Great stress is often laid on the absence 

 from Spitzbergen of any indication of glacial action in 

 times earlier than the Pleistocene ; and also on the fact 

 that the occurrence of fossil coral reefs, and beds contain- 

 ing warm, temperate, or even sub-tropical plants, shows 

 that the climate before the Pleistocene epoch was quite 

 different from that of the present time. Our evidence, 

 however, greatly simplifies the task of explaining these 

 difficulties ; that remarkable changes of climate have 

 happened, is unquestionable. One such is probably in 

 progress still. But these changes of climate are reduced 

 to inuch narrower limits than seems to be generally con- 

 sidered. We found signs of glacial action in the deposits 

 of, at least, two different eras before those of the "great 

 ice age." Moreover, the so-called coral reefs are not 

 coral reefs, and might have been formed in the adjoining 

 seas ; and the fossil plants do not indicate so mild a 

 climate as those of the Miocene beds of Southern Green- 

 land. In fact, the whole of the fossil faunas and floras 

 from the Devonian onward are comparatively poor in 

 species, and appear to have lived under unfavourable 

 conditions, and their existence in Spitzbergen may all 

 be explained by the assumption of only a sub-arctic 

 climate. 



One of the main temptations Spitzbergen offers to the 

 geologist is a magnificent opportunity for the study of 

 glacial action ; for we may see there marine and land 

 ice working side by side. As our time on the coast was 

 short, we naturally saw most of the inland glaciers. 

 These are very different from those of Switzerland ; for 

 example, they have practically no iicvl' fields. All the 

 snow that falls on the collecting-ground at the head of 

 the glacier turns to ice in situ. Time after time we 

 ascended glaciers, expecting to be soon stopped by 



