SPITZBERGEN. 175 



changes of temperature ; sailors falling into the water may with impunity let their 

 clothes dry on their body ; and the place has been so highly recommended for 

 many complaints that sanatoria may possibly some day rise on the banks of the 

 Spitzbergen creeks for the benefit of invalids from England and the continent. 



But however salubrious, the climate still remains cold, uncertain, changeable, and 

 the sky never continues cloudless for a single day. "Winds, cooled by the ice-fields and 

 glaciers, blow at short intervals, although a steady south wind prevails in Hinlopen 

 Strait. Snow may fall even in the " dog days : " Scoresby registered a temperature 

 of 15" Fahr. in June, 1810, and the glass has never been observed to rise higher 

 than on Jul}^ 15th, 18G1, when it marked 61° Fahr. In winter the mercury frequently 

 freezes, although travellers represent the mean temperature as relatively mild, 

 owing to the prevalence of strong south winds during this season. The glass rises 

 at times above freezing point in midwinter. But when the sun appears on the 

 horizon, gradually describing a wider circuit in the heavens, the cold grows more 

 intense, so that here, as in England, " the cold strengthens as the day lengthens." * 



At the southern extremity of Spitzbergen, in 76° 30' JS". lat., the sun rises 

 37° above the horizon, but in the Seven Islands 33° only, and although it 

 remains for four months above the horizon, summer is soon followed by a winter 

 of equal length, illumined only by the fitful glare of the northern lights. Under 

 the influence of the prevailing southern winds the aurora borealis is now con- 

 tinuous, but much fainter than in lower latitudes. Fierce storms, accompanied by 

 forked lightnings, rending the welkin, are altogether unknown in these waters. 



In winter the various island groups are bound together by unbroken masses of 

 ice, stretching for vast distances northwards, but limited on the west by the warm 

 currents from the tropics. But even in summer all the coasts are at times ice- 

 bound and inaccessible to vessels, except through narrow passages opening here 

 and there between the ice-fields. The changeable temperature produced by the 

 shifting currents of warm and cold water is also frequently attended by dense fogs, 

 shrouding land and sea for days together. In August, 1875, Payer and Wey- 

 precht remained enveloped for 354 hours, or over a fortnight, in one of these fogs, 

 which convert day into night, and which prevail especially in Hinlopen Strait, 

 between the great island and North-East Land. 



Beneath the pale, grey skies of Spitzbergen the flora is extremely poor, com- 

 pared even with that of Novaya Zemlya. The only timber is the drift-wood thrown 

 up, especially on the southern and northern shores, under the shelter of the islands 

 and headlands. There are even no shrubs, and nothing to recall the plants of the 

 temperate zone beyond two species of dwarf willow and the Empetrum nigrum. 

 The prevailing vegetation consists of lichens and mosses, of which there are 

 reckoned over 200 species. According to Heuglin there are 120 species of 

 phanerogamous plants, or three or four times more than in Iceland ; but Malm- 

 grèn, who has devoted much time to the botany of these islands, mentions only 

 60 flowering plants and 4 ferns. 



Such as it is, this flora belongs at once to the arctic zone and to Scandinavia, 



* Mean temperature in lat. 77° 30' : — January, — 1"; Jul}-, 37° ; year, \T Fahr. 



