476 MR. CHA.S. DAVISON ON SNOWDRIFT DEPOSITS. [Aug. 1 894, 



ice-needles, so minute that they pass easily through the smallest 

 crevice in doors or windows. At times, countless ice-needles fill 

 the air and make a continual rustling noise ; distant objects appear 

 covered with a thick veil or clothed in a dense mist, and the clear- 

 ness of day is reduced to a dull yellow twilight. 1 But even when 

 the sky seems perfectly clear, these fine crystals hardly ever cease 

 from falling ; any object left exposed is soon coated by them, and 

 even the bare patches on hill-tops become gradually whitened by 

 this invisible precipitation. 2 



Pine snow like this lies upon the ground loose as dust or powder, 

 and, until it is closely packed by the wind or encrusted by the 

 action of the sun, it is drifted with the greatest ease. The least 

 puff of wind sets it in motion, and snow-banks are piled up wherever 

 an obstruction is encountered. 3 At Pitlekaj, in Northern Siberia, a 

 shallow, but rapid and uninterrupted stream of snow was observed 

 by Nordenskiold, and he estimated that the quantity of water thus 

 driven in a frozen form must be equal to " the mass of water in the 

 giant rivers of our globe." 4 



But, important as is the work performed during this incessant 

 drifting, it is not to be compared with that of the violent gales and 

 storms of Arctic lands. There, from the summits of hills and from 

 exposed places, the snow is torn off in sheets by the fierce gusts of 

 wiud. In eddying columns it is whirled upwards for hundreds of 

 feet, or driven away in wreaths as if the hill-tops were smoking. 

 Great clouds of snow sweep down the slopes and rush over the cliffs 

 in strange fantastic forms. Down below, on the more level ground, 

 the whole air is filled with flying, streaming snow, which no human 

 being can face, and none can endure for many hours. Objects a 

 few yards off are completely hidden from view, and soon every 

 landmark is obliterated. 5 Such storms may last for days, and when 

 they are spent the crests of the hills are seen to be bared, the valleys 

 and ravines are choked with light soft snow, and under the shelter 

 of cliffs there collect great snow-slopes which often outlast the 

 succeeding: summer. 6 



1 Belcher, vol. i. pp. 318, 358 ; De Long, vol. i. pp. 147-48 ; Greely, vol. i. 

 p. 183; Hayes, p. 194; Koldewey, p. 422; Markham, p. 161; Nares, vol. i. 

 p. 319 ; Nordenskiold, vol. i. p. 517 ; Parry C, p. 77 ; Payer, vol. ii. pp. 50, 

 61 ; Richardson, vol. ii. p. 98. 



2 Hayes, p. 218; Nares, vol. i. pp. 246-47; Parry B, pp. 153, 420; Parry 

 C, p. 77 ; Payer, vol. i. pp. 244, 299, 300. 



3 Belcher, vol. ii. p. 85 ; Nares, vol. i. p. 146 ; Nordenskiold, vol. i. p. 473 ; 

 Parry B. pp. 129, 139, 189, 200. 



4 Nordenskiold, vol. i. pp. 483-84 ; Andree, pp. 523-33. 



5 De Long, vol. i.pp. 147-48,258, 343 ; Gilder, pp. 118-19, 164-66; Hayes, 

 pp. 189-91, 302; Koldewey, pp.125, 383-84, 399, 422; Lansdell, vol.' ii. 

 pp 563, 635 ; M'Clintock, pp. 60, 95 ; M'Clure, pp. 237-38 ; Markham, pp. 161, 

 169-70 ; Nares, vol. i. pp. 142, 163 ; ' Nature,' vol. xi. (Feb. 25th, 1875) p. 334 ; 

 Nordenskiold, vol. i. p. 483 ; Parry A, pp. 109-10, 156-57, 179 ; Parry B, 

 pp. 150, 190 ; Wrangell, p. 194. 



6 For references to snow-slopes under cliffs, see Beechey, vol. i., pi. facing 

 p. 311 ; Belcher, vol. i. p. 272 (also pi. facing p. 271) ; Greely, vol. i. p. 312 ; 

 Nares, vol. i. pp. 241, 286, 290, 316, vol. ii. pp. 79, 90-92 ; ' Nature,' vol. xxxiii. 

 (Jan. 14th, 1886) p. 244 ; Richardson, vol. i. pp. 279, 283-84. 



