174 



THE EUEOPEAN ISLANDS OF THE AECTIC OCEAN. 



islands are now lost amidst the advancing ice-fields. On the other hand, the masses 

 formerly filling North Sound, a northern ramification of the Ijs-fiord, seem to 

 have retreated considerably inland. 



As on the Scandinavian seaboard, the traces of recent upheaval are numerous in 

 the archipelago. The old beach is every where met with at various elevations round 

 all the islands, sometimes rising 50, sometimes as much as 150 feet above sea-level. 

 The amount of upheaval that has taken place in modern times may be studied by 

 the quantities of drift-wood, the remains of cetacea, and shells of still living species 

 now found far beyond the reach of the waves. Low Island, at the north-west 

 angle of North-East Land, appears to be entirely of recent origin ; its rocks, inter- 

 Fig. 85. — " Recherche " Bay in 1839. 

 Scale 1 : 180,000. 



2 Miles. 



mingled with lakelets, seem scarcely yet quite dry, and in the interior spars and 

 drift-wood are found associated with the remains of whales. A chain of reefs is 

 even now slowly rising between the mainland and this new island, whose area is 

 estimated at about 20 square miles. 



Climate, Fauna, axd Flora of Spitzbergen. 



Tempered by the marine currents and winds from the south-west, Spitzbergen 

 shares in the general mildness of climate enjoyed by Scandinavia and the west of 

 Europe. In summer, if not the most agreeable, the climate is at least one of the 

 healthiest in the world, and the recent Swedish explorers unanimously declare that 

 it is superior even to that of South Scandinavia, and that there is perfect immunity 

 from colds, catarrhs, and all affections of the chest. No ill effects follow from sudden 



