430 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 28, 



explosions, exactly resembling loud and prolonged thunder. These 

 tremendous sounds appeared to be caused by the smooth parts of the 

 glacier falling in at the edges towards the disrupted part, as nu- 

 merous vast cracks and fissures existed all along the edges of the 

 smooth parts towards where they joined the rough parts. The ice 

 which became detached from the rough part of this glacier appeared 

 to have undergone enormous twisting and squeezing, and I could not 

 previously have believed ice to be a substance of sufficient viscosity to 

 sustain such rough pressure without being crushed into powder. 



Much of the ice which floated away from the cliffs of all these 

 glaciers was heavily charged with clay and stones, imbedded into it ; 

 and the sea for miles around is sometimes discoloured from the 

 quantity of mud which is washed off this floating land-ice by the 

 waves. 



This part of the coast is more subject to fog than the west side. 

 This is probably generated by the cold caused by the proximity of 

 this glacier and the quantities of floating ice detached from it. 



A very powerful current from the N.E. runs down this coast. It 

 seems never less than three miles an hour ; and I have found it as 

 much as six or seven, judging from the impossibility of making head 

 against it in a six- oared boat. As of course ice and boat alike go 

 with the current, one is apt not to discover it until you approach 

 the land or a grounded iceberg. Towards the end of August this 

 north-easterly current became perceptibly very much stronger. 



About the end of July we ran southwards into Deeva Bay to ob- 

 tain shelter from a gale of N.E. wind ; we anchored behind Black 

 Point, a promontory which divides Deeva Bay from the sea to the 

 eastwards. This promontory is formed by a flat-topped mountain of 

 about 1200 feet in height; it consists of mud-coloured limestone* 

 and sandstone*, with veins of black stuff resembling coal*. These 

 rocks are stratified with singular horizontality, and the layers or 

 strata are very minute and numerous ; only in two or three places 

 have I observed slight bends or deflections from the horizontal in the 

 stratification. 



The sides of this mountain form slopes of about 45°, without a 

 particle of vegetation, and are closely and deeply furrowed by water- 

 courses from top to bottom. Enormous quantities of mud and shaly 

 rubbish appear to be carried down these furrowed water-courses ; 

 but the base of the mountain is so exposed to the E. and N.E. that 

 no accumulation can take place at the foot of it ; on the contrary, 

 it seems to be undergoing very rapid disintegration, as well from 

 the lashing of the winter storms and currents at its foot as from 

 the action of frost and avalanches above. 



All the lower hills of South-east Spitzbergen seem to be of the 

 same formation and same configuration as the above, with the ex- 

 ception that inside the gulfs and fiords, where there is shelter from 

 storms and currents, there is generally a flat or gently sloping plain 

 between the hills and the sea, obviously formed by the washings and 

 debris of the hills. It is very curious and instructive to observe how 

 * Specimens sent. (See Appendix, p. 436.) 



