94 STEVENSON 



glacier extends for more than ten miles, from Cape Bohemian 

 to Alk point; ice was present during August, 1904, in bays 

 further up Icefiord, yet around Advent bay and in the long 

 Advent dale, extending southward from that bay, there was no 

 ice except in some sheltered ravines where petty glacierets 

 remain/ The ill-success of attempts to winter on the island 

 were not due to the severity of the climate for Russian tribes 

 wintered there during many successive seasons. Scurvy, not 

 the climate, made wintering impossible for Europeans. That 

 terror no longer exists. 



One must not fail to note that the general conditions during 

 accumulation of the Spitzbergen coal did not differ from those 

 during the accumulation of coals in our land. Even the inter- 

 mittent deposit is proved by the lamellar partings as well as by 

 the thicker rock parting. The climatic conditions from Carbon- 

 iferous to Tertiary were like those of lower latitudes. Nathorst 

 says of the Carboniferous, " The plants already known in 

 Europe are in Spitzbergen as great as here. Ferns, Lepidoden- 

 dron and Sigillaria." Toula discovered a familiar fauna in por- 

 tions of the Icefiord area, as did also Keilhau and the French 

 explorers in the southern part of the island ; the Jurassic flora 

 is of a type familiar in Europe, while the later flora abounds in 

 deciduous plants. 



Reference to the occurrence of seaweeds along the Spitzber- 

 gen coast is not out of place here. It may be remembered that 

 Mohr, forty years ago, asserted that coal beds are due to accu- 

 mulation of seaweed material and found a strong support for his 

 theory in the existence of coal on Spitzbergen. He quotes from 

 some writer in the bulletin of the French Geological Society and 

 also from Naumann the statement that " Even now there flour- 

 ishes on the Spitzbergen coast a so luxuriant Fucus vegetation 

 that often the boat can scarcely work its way through." " He 

 regards the Gulf Stream as the great carrier of material and as 

 responsible for the existence of the weed. There is no room 



1 It may be stated in passing that the glaciers of southern Spitzbergen are clearly 

 decreasing. 



2 Mohr, op. ciL, p. 130. 



