1859.] LAMONT GEOLOGY OF SPITZBERGEN. 151 



however, to have actually passed through from the north coast into 

 Stour-fiord. 



The first thirty or forty miles of coast along Avhich we sailed con T 

 sisted almost entirely of the faces of two or three enormous glaciers 

 reaching high up into the mountains (the tops of which were hardy 

 visible in places peeping through the ice), with their bases reaching 

 into the sea ; of course every now and then large pieces, some of 

 them as big as a church, become detached from these ice -precipices 

 and topple into the sea with terrific uproar. The waters of this 

 Sound are very shallow, seldom as much as sixteen fathoms ; and I 

 believe it is the same all roimd the shores of Spitzbergen, so that the 

 formation of very large icebergs is impossible, and I saw none at all 

 approaching to the size of those to be met with on the banks of 

 Newfoundland : the largest of those which we did see were aground. 



The greater part of the shores of this great Sound on both sides 

 present a singular uniformity of contour. First, there is a muddy 

 flat of from half a mile to three miles broad, extending from the sea 

 to the foot of the lower hills : this plain is composed of mud mixed 

 with shaly debris from the lower hills ; it is generally in a semi-fluid 

 state and almost impossible to walk over, but there is ice or hard 

 ground at 12 to 18 inches under the surface. Many rividets, 

 thickly charged with mud, and some of them unfordable, intersect 

 these dreary flats ; they are sparingly clothed with small Saxifragas, 

 mosses, and lichens, which form the food of the reindeer. These 

 animals are tolerably abundant on the flats, or in the valleys not 

 filled by glaciers, and attain to a most wonderful condition of 

 obesity, considering the scantiness of their diet. On these flats are 

 numerous trap-rocks, coming up like islands in the flats, and also 

 prolonged dykes of trap. In some plains these approach to that 

 singular formation known as the Giant's Causeway, but without its 

 regularity. 



At the end of the flat there is generally a steep slope of mud. 

 snow, and shaly debris, which reaches up to the perpendicular crags 

 of rock. This rock resembles a mixture of limestone and white 

 sandstone, and is easily split and broken. These cliffs arc generally 

 quite inaccessible, and above them st retell for many miles away into 

 the mists enormous glaciers, and above these again are visible, when 

 the weather is clear, high peaks, apparently of granite, <;uiio or 



70()<> feet high, from which Spitzbergen derives its name. 



Along the shores of Stour-fiord, as far up as we went (we Bailed 

 up to where it was choked with ICC and shallowed to three fathoms), 

 there is a considerable quantity of drift-wood. This consists prin- 

 cipally of small pine-trees, very mini) weather-worn and many <|tiitc 

 water-logged. I also observed much wood which bad formed part 



of vessels : Some i>|' fchis was oak. There are also everywhere to be 

 found many bones of whales, occurring both singly and in nearly 



entire skeletons. 



Many of these pieces of drift -wood ami bones arc lying several 

 miles inland and high abovi high-water murk. I regret that 1 did 

 not iiniis'in the height at which I saw any. bul 1 am |><>-it i\ . thai 



