614 JOHN J. STEVENSON 



Strait seems to be well marked, the depth increasing to 72, 90, and 

 200 fathoms, with 755 at 30 miles farther. As far as to the 200- 

 fathom point high land is alongside, the depth being only 8-40 

 fathoms, while farther out toward the deepest sounding along the 

 line of the strait the soundings eastward from that channel indicate a 

 submerged dissected plateau. 



Going westward 60 miles, one finds north from West Spitzbergen 

 another area of soundings showing similar conditions. Wilde Bay 

 extends southward from the north coast for 90 miles; forty miles up 

 its depth is 30 fathoms; at 10 miles from the sea it is 90; but a sub- 

 merged moraine reduces the depth at the mouth to 55-72 fathoms. 

 Liefde Bay is just west, with, as its western boundary, a broad low 

 area, about 100 square miles, apparently moraine stuff. At its 

 mouth, where it adjoins Wilde, the depth is 93 fathoms. The course 

 of the united bays can be followed northwestwardly until its depth 

 becomes 150 fathoms, and at 15 miles farther 505". This is inclosed 

 on the west by elevated land, covered by 42-70 fathoms and cut by 

 valleys, some of which are tributary to the Wilde-Liefde, while others 

 are tributary to a shallower valley at the west, which is but 360 

 fathoms deep at 10 miles west from the 505-fathom cast, and only 390 

 at 30 miles farther, or 120 miles northwest from Liefde Bay. Still 

 farther west is a deeper valley with a depth of 235 at 27 miles, 300 at 

 40, and 730 at 115 miles from the northwest corner of the island. 



Going southward along the west coast, one finds the long island 

 known as Prince Charles Foreland, separated from West Spitzbergen 

 by the narrow Foreland Sound, shallow and 8-10 miles wide. The 

 depth of the sound at its mouth is 27 fathoms, but its course is clear, 

 for the depth becomes 120 fathoms at 15 miles north. Westward 

 from this the soundings are too few to be of much value, but the 

 greatest depth at 75 miles from the coast is only 200 fathoms, though 

 farther south the 300-fathom line is at 45 miles and the 500-fathom 

 line at 51 miles from the coast. The abruptness of the change from 

 200 to 300 and then to 500 fathoms suggests that this line of soundings 

 falls off into a valley. 



Icefiord is much deeper than any of the bays at the north; it is 

 120 fathoms at 8 miles up, and 215 at its mouth, while at 60 miles 

 west-southwest the soundings show 600 fathoms, though at a few 

 miles north the depth is but 93-110 fathoms. At a few miles south, 



