PAYER ON FRANZ- JOSEPH LAND. 599 



West Greenland is a high and monotonous glacier-plateau. 

 East Greenland offers beautiful Alpine scenery, with a rich de- 

 velopment of animal and vegetable life. Spitzbergen and Nowaja- 

 Zemlya have the aspect of high mountain-groups, rising about 

 9,000 feet above the sea. Both are far less impressed with the 

 type of Arctic severity than Franz-Joseph Laud is ; the latter, 

 by its enormous glaciers and many plateaux, reminds one of West 

 Greenland, and in the low level of the limit of its congealed snow 

 (Firn), and in its volcano-like peaks, it bears some resemblance to 

 Victoria Land of the Antarctic regions. 



The average height of its mountains is between 2,000 and 

 3,000 feet ; 5,000 feet in the S.W. There are great volcanic 

 " massifs," with recent deposits in their hollows. The prevailing 

 rock is crystalline and fine-grained Dolerite, identical with that of 

 Greenland. Amygdaloids liave not been met with, though 

 common in Greenland. In the south the Dolerite becomes 

 aphanitic, passing into real Basalt. To the north they are coarse- 

 grained, and contain Nepheline. Erratic blocks are scarce. 



Some of the newly discovered islands of this group must be of 

 considerable extent, as they bear enormous glaciers, whose abrupt 

 slopes, sometimes 200 feet high, generally border the coast. The 

 greater part of Franz-Joseph I^and seems to be buried under 

 snow. The vesicular form of the glaciers on all the smaller islands 

 is remarkable and peculiar. 



The Tides upheaving the ice in the bays, and breaking it 

 against the shore, do not reach above two feet along the coasts of 

 Austria Sound. 



The Vegetation of Franz- Joseph Land is extremely scanty, far 

 more so than that of Greenland. Its general character is that of 

 an Alpine Flora of between 9,000 and 10,000 feet above the sea. 

 The hollows, free from snow, and even in the most favoura1)le situa- 

 tions, offer no richer aspect. Level places are scantily beset with 

 Grasses, some few species of Saxifraga and Silene acaulis. Ce- 

 rastium and Poppy are of rare occurrence. Mosses and Lichens 

 are more frequent. Among them Umbilicaria arctica prevails, 

 which is found very high up in Greenland. 



Drift-wood of old date, is common, though in small quantity. 

 It was probably driven thither by winds. 



No traces of human habitations were met with. In the 

 southern part White Bears and passing Birds were the only 

 representatives of Animal Life, excepting the Walrus, seen only 

 twice. 



