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



Nothing connected with the geology of Spitzbergen is more 

 striking than the absence of pebble-beaches. Nowhere along the 

 whole S., S.E., or S.W. coasts, nor amongst the Thousand Islands, 

 nor up the great sound called " Stour Fiord," did I anywhere observe 

 what can be called a pebble-beach. The coast everywhere consists 

 of either mud, or cliffs of ice, or rocks. In some places, indeed, 

 principally amongst the Thousand Islands, I have found small quan- 

 tities of what might be called gravel ; but it is very coarse, the 

 fragments being seldom less than a cubic inch* in size, and invari- 

 ably almost wholly composed of the same coarse trap-rock which 

 forms the islands. It is generally mixed with very coarse blackish 

 sand, evidently formed by the disintegration of the same rocks. I 

 send several bags of gravel labelled*, obtained both from different 

 points of the coast-line, and from different elevations inland. Num- 

 bers of shells abound, both on the shore and far inland. I send a 

 bag of specimens f. 



Towards the end of August, the weather got very wild amongst 

 the Thousand Islands, — there being perpetual gales of N.E. wind 

 with snow, and a tremendous current from the same direction bring- 

 ing down quantities of heavy ice. We then sailed up Stour Fiord to 

 shoot Eeindeer, about twenty or twenty-five miles to the north of 

 Thymeh's Straits. This Sound makes a turn abruptly due E., instead 

 of continuing N. as marked in the charts. I followed the shore in 

 a boat about fifteen miles from this angle, going E. all the way, until 

 at last the Sound abruptly narrowed to a sort of gut about two miles 

 broad. Such a very strong stream ran down this gut that we found 

 it impossible to row up it, and the shore was impracticable for walk- 

 ing ; so that I was reluctantly obliged to give up its exploration. 

 None of my Norwegian crew had ever been so far up before ; and 

 no one seems to know whether this gut communicates with the sea 

 to the east or not. 



I am, however, very strongly of opinion myself that it does, and 

 that we were then within a very few miles of the East Sea — pro- 

 bably at Henloopen Straits. I found this opinion on the fact of 

 such a very strong current setting down the gut, and also because, 

 although the day was unusually bright and clear, we could see no 

 land in that direction higher than the rocks we stood on — 20 or 30 

 feet. These rocks were all low, flattish, and very rugged hills of 

 coarse reddish trap (or porphyry ?), and were very much smoothed 

 on the tops, as if by quantities of ice having travelled over them in 

 by-gone times. Numerous small glaciers lay here and there amongst 

 them ; and the whole country to the E. and N.E. looked gloomy, 

 sterile, and desolate to the last degree. 



There are some beautiful mossy flats and valleys on the east side 

 of Stour Fiord, abounding with Reindeer. From their excessive 

 tameness, some of these deer appeared never to have seen a human 

 being, nor anything that could hurt them, in their lives. 



In the upper part of this Sound, I observed two very remarkable 

 mountains : one was a long hill of about 1500 feet high, and seem- 

 * Specimens. t Specimens. (See Appendix, p. 438.) 



