12 MAN AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 



than stationary neve-fields lingering upon the north side 

 of the range. The largest of these is near Bagueres de 

 Luclion, and sends down a short, river-like glacier. 



In Scandinavia the height of the mountains is also 

 much less than that of the Alps, but the moister climate 

 and the more northern latitude favours the growth of 

 glaciers at a much lower level North of the sixty-second 

 degree of latitude, the plateaus over five thousand feet 

 above the sea pretty generally are gathering-places for 

 glaciers. From the Justedal a snow-field, covering five 

 hundred and eighty square miles, in latitude 62°, twenty- 

 four glaciers push outwards towards the German Sea, the 

 largest of which is five miles long and three-quarters of a 

 mile wide. The Fondalen snow-field, between latitudes 

 66° and 67°, covers an area about equal to that of the 

 Justedal; but, on account of its more northern position, 

 its glaciers descend through the valleys quite to the ocean- 

 level. The Folgofon snow-field is still farther south, but, 

 though occupying an area of only one hundred square 

 miles, it sends down as many as three glaciers to the sea- 

 level. The total area of the Scandinavian snow-fields is 

 about five thousand square miles. 



In Sweden Dr. Svenonius estimates that there are, 

 between latitudes 67° and 68^°, twenty distinct groups of 

 glaciers, covering an area of four hundred square kilo- 

 metres (one hundred and forty-four square miles), and he 

 numbers upwards of one hundred distinct glaciers of small 

 size. 



As is to be expected, the large islands in the Polar 

 Sea north of Europe and Asia are, to a great extent, 

 covered with ^eve-fields, and numerous glaciers push out 

 from them to the sea in all directions, discharging their 

 surplus ice as bergs, which float away and cumber the 

 waters with their presence in many distant places. 



The island of Spitzbergen, in latitude 76° to 81°, is 

 favourably situated for the production of glaciers, by 



