144 Polar Explorations. 



grow in favored spots, on the margin of the sea. On the 

 eastern side of the island, immense icebergs stand in the 

 ravines hke castellated towers, and being of a beautiful green 

 color, diversified by the strata of the cliffs, offer a highly pic- 

 turesque appearance. While the Hecla waited for the party 

 on the ice, the temperature was milder than it had been 

 found in the islands of Baffin's, or the frozen coasts of Hud- 

 son's Bay. On the western coast there is a remarkable 

 tract of open sea, where the whalers resort long after the 

 waters in the lower latitudes are frozen. This is attributable 

 to the remnants of the gulph stream, as it sweeps around 

 North Cape, before it is lost in the frozen ocean. 



In many particulars, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, the North 

 Georgian Islands, and all the coasts and lands discovered 

 beyond the latitude of 68° and 70° north, bear a strong- 

 er resemblance to each other than more southern parallels, 

 where genial seasons, and the assiduities of man, modify 

 their aspects. 



The upper surfaces are seldom thawed more than four or 

 five inches, where in favorable spots ranunculi, poppies, mos- 

 ses, sorrel, and afew grasses make haste to vegetate, and with- 

 er almost as soon. The subsoil is almost impenetrably frozen 

 to a great depth, in some instances to fourteen and eighteen 

 feet. The absence of the sun for four months, during which 

 " the bear dozes in his icy cave" or with all other living beings 

 retreats to southern latitudes; the cold, and above all the aw- 

 ful stillness which cannot be realized, without being wit- 

 nessed, are circumstances common to them all, as are the 

 fogs, and rains, and dazzling sunshine of summer. The win- 

 ter lasts ten months, leaving but two that can be relied upon 

 for navigating the seas or exploring the coasts. 



Spitzbergen, according to Com. Phipps, is in 79° 56' N. lat. 

 The south end of the island is formed of high, barren, black 

 rocks, without the least mark of vegetation, the whole island 

 bristled into high peaks, which are in most parts covered 

 with snow "rising above the clouds." In this as in Melville 

 island, when the summer commences, the changes are ve- 

 ry rapid. In a week from the time when not a drop of water 

 could be obtained for drinking, without melting snow by the 

 fire, torrents were rushing through the ravines, and the sur- 

 face full of pools, and streams of water. 



Melville island, whose north coast is in lat. 75° 14' N. long. 

 1 1 3° W. was traversed in various directions by parties from the 



