200 THE GLACIAL aEOLOGT OF SPITSBEKGETT. [May 1 898. 



II. The Glaciees ais^d their AcTioif. 



Precipi'tatioTi in Spitsbergen is probably greatest along the western 

 monntain-cbain, for the winds from tbe soutb-west have crossed 

 the comparatively warm waters carried northward by the Gulf 

 Stream, and thns arrive laden with moisture. The snow that falls 

 on the seaward face of the mountain-range has a ready escape 

 down the steep slope to the sea ; but, although the eastern plateau 

 is intersected in every direction by deep valleys and branching 

 fiords, the snow that falls on it has no such easy outlet : the snow 

 therefore accumulates, until it forms either glaciers of the ' Piedmont ' 

 type or ' inland ice-sheets/ 



The extent of the ice in Spitsbergen has been exaggerated : it 

 has been stated, for example, that ' the interior of Spitsbergen at 

 presents consists of an immense ice-plateau, from 1500 to 2500 feet 

 in height, which has its issue into the sea by means of the glaciers, 

 which everywhere on the coasts protrude into the sea.' It had, 

 however, been proved by the Swedish expeditions, and especially 

 by that nnder Prof. Nathorst & Baron de Geer in 1882, that some 

 parts of the interior are free from ice. Belts of land break up the 

 inland ice into three main sheets, as was shown very clearly by 

 Lieut. Bystrom's map,^ issued in 1896. We saw but little of these 

 great ice-sheets, as we made no attempt to cross them. For, though 

 they are of great interest from their probable resemblance to the 

 ice-sheets that once covered some parts of the British Isles, yet 

 their geological action can be better studied upon their margins 

 than upon their surface ; in a march across them probably little 

 could be seen of the processes that take place within or below 

 them. 



In addition to these ' inland ice-sheets ' there are in Spitsbergen 

 glaciers of the ordinary Alpine type. They agree with those of 

 Switzerland in most respects. They flow from high collecting- 

 grounds until they melt away or are otherwise destroyed. They 

 carry down upon their surface lateral and median moraines, 

 and their ends are often surrounded by terminal moraines. 

 But two differences between the glaciers of Switzerland and 

 Spitsbergen were soon apparent. The former are the outlets of 

 extensive snow-fields, and the material of which they consist passes 

 from snow into ice through the stage of neve. But many of the 

 Spitsbergen glaciers do not drain snow-fields, and their material 

 passes directly into the condition of neve-ice and glacier-ice. Thus, 

 at the head of nearly every glacier-pass that we crossed (for 

 example, Fox Pass, Bolter Pass, Flower Pass), we found no true 

 neve or gathering-ground of snow. In some cases such glacier- 

 ice may have been formed by avalanches ; but at least in one case 

 this explanation is inadmissible, and we were forced to the con- 

 clusion that under Arctic conditions snow may be converted into 

 ice without pressure, and that the existence of glaciers does not 

 necessarily postulate the existence of great snow-fields. 



^ H. Bystrcim, ' Ofversiktskarta ofVer Norra Polartrakterna,' Stockholm, 1896. 



