172 THE EUROPEAN ISLANDS OF THE AECTIC OCEAN. 



deposits in the dried bed of a glacial torrent, about 1^ miles from the shores of 

 King's Bay, facing the north end of Prince Charles Foreland. This coal, 

 which burns very freely, with little ash, is rich in fossil trees, illustrating the 

 mildness of the former climate. 



On the coasts there is no lack of volcanic rocks, presenting here and there 

 varied and picturesque outlines. They consist largely of hyperite, which Nor- 

 denskjold regards as ashes crystallized under heavy pressure, and in several places 

 they seem to have been distributed as lava over the trias and Jura systems. 

 Hyperite cliffs are numerous on both sides of Hinlopen Strait, and several islands 

 are entirely composed of this substance. Such are the so-called Thousand Islands, 

 south of Stans Foreland, besides the various headlands projecting into Genevra 

 Bay. These rocks contain a certain proportion of iron, which oxidizes when 

 denuded, and in some places affects the magnetic needle. 



The gently sloping rocks are covered for most of the year with snow, which 

 disappears only in summer from the lower heights on the coast. The mean limit 

 of the snow-line has been variously determined by naturalists, and it may be said 

 to vary indefinitely with the nature and inclination of the surface, the aspect of the 

 land, and other climatic conditions. Where wind and sun combine to lay bare the 

 slopes, the snow will disappear to a height of 1,600 feet, and in the Seven Islands 

 Nordenskjold found none lower than 980 feet. In some favoured spots vegeta- 

 tion rises to 2,000 feet, but at this elevation the snow generally persists throughout 

 the year. 



In such a climate the streams are necessarily intermittent. In some places small 

 rivulets flowing from the glaciers to the low-lying coast lands seek a channel through 

 the shingle to the sea ; but the large valleys of the plateau are filled with glaciers, 

 all of which descend quite to the shore, some even projecting beyond its limits. 

 Most of them are very slightly inclined, and generally very short compared with 

 their breadth, several occupying the whole space from headland to headland 

 along the shores of wide inlets. The largest, on the east side of JN'orth-East 

 Land, forms a frozen mass over 60 miles long. At the southern extremity a 

 glacier presents a sea frontage of 12 miles, but others seem to be little more 

 than cataracts suddenly congealed, as, for instance, that of JVlagdalena Bay, which 

 is only 800 feet wide on the beach. Most of them end abruptly on the coast, and 

 on the west side they melt rapidly at contact with the warm currents from the 

 tropics, which have here a mean temperature of 40'"' Fahr. The icebergs from time 

 to time detached from them are often of considerable dimensions, one observed in 

 1773 by Phipps off the north-west coast rising 50 feet above, and plunging 

 130 feet below the surface. 



The east side of the large island and of North-East Land, washed by the polar 

 currents, is mostly ice-bound, and generally of more difficult access than the west, 

 which is indented by numerous sheltered inlets. These gulfs and fiords remain 

 mostly open to the sea, from w^hich, however, they are partly cut off by masses of 

 detritus or submarine moraines, known to the fishers by the name of " seal banks." 



Like those of Switzerland, the Spitzbergen glaciers have been subject to various 



