RECENT GEOLOGY OF SPITZBERGEN 615 



due west from Bell Sound, the depth increases very gradually for 40 

 miles to 100 fathoms, but the course of the Bell Sound channel is in 

 southwest direction, 839 fathoms being reached in 70 miles, and only 

 15 miles west from a line of soundings showing 90-130; a sounding 

 of 160 fathoms between this line and the shore suggests the existence 

 of a tributary valley there. West from South Cape the depth becomes 

 118 at 45, 523 at 55, and 743 fathoms at 65 miles. 



Farther south the 700-fathom limit is between 60 and 70 miles 

 west from a line joining South Cape and Bear Island; eastward from 

 this line the depth decreases within 10-15 miles to about 200 fathoms, 

 which is the depth on a broad strip of 10-15 miles; thence eastwardly 

 for nearly 200 miles the depth, except along well-defined lines, varies 

 between 20 and 50 fathoms. In 225 miles northeast from Bear 

 Island the depth exceeds 35 fathoms only three times; while between 

 this broad strip and the larger islands at the northwest one can trace 

 deep channel-ways marking the westward drainage. An elevation 

 of 250 feet would unite all the great islands to each other and to Bear 

 Island, now 150 miles from South Cape, the nearest point. 



The long channel- ways at the north traceable between walls until 

 they reach a depth of 390 in one case, 505 in another, that of Icefiord 

 traceable to 600 fathoms, with only 100 fathoms at 15 miles away on 

 each side, as well as the relation of the 700-fathom line to the direc- 

 tion of the coast, seem to leave little room for doubt that at one time 

 the coast line lay not far from that marked by the depth of 700 

 fathoms. The details of soundings do not permit anything further 

 at present. Icefiord, now only 8 miles wide at the mouth, was a 

 broad valley beyond the present coast line, 20 miles wide at 70 miles 

 away, with its bounding walls rising 2,000-3,000 feet above its floor; 

 the valley of Hinlopen Strait as well as that of Wilde-Liefde Bays 

 must have extended in like manner to more than 100 miles beyond 

 the present coast line; and the Spitzbergen plateau was a tri- 

 angular area extending from beyond N. L. 82 southward to an 

 unknown distance beyond Bear Island, not less than 700 miles from 

 north to south; the width in N. L. 8i° much exceeded that of the 

 area given on the Admiralty Chart, which is about 400 miles wide. 

 The writer had no access, during the preparation of this note, to the 

 results obtained by the several recent expeditions to Franz Josef 

 Land; but Nansen's description of the fiord features of the inlets 



