EXISTING GLACIERS. 13 



reason both of its high northern latitude, and of its rela- 

 tion to the Gulf Stream, which conveys around to it an 

 excessive amount of moisture, thus ensuring an excep- 





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Fig. 8.— The Svartisen Glacier on the west coast of Norway, just within the Arc- 

 tic circle, at the head of a fiord ten miles from the ocean. The foot of the 

 Glacier is one mile wide, and a quarter of a mile back from the water. Ter- 

 minal moraine in front. (Photographed by Dr. L. C. Warner.) 



tionally large snow-fall over the island. The mountainous 

 character of the island also favours the concentration of 

 the ice-movement into glaciers of vast size and power. 

 Still, even here, much of the land is free from snow and 

 ice in summer. But upon the northern portion of the 

 island there is an extensive table-land, upwards of two 

 thousand feet above the sea, over which the ice-field is 

 continuous. Four great glaciers here descend to tide-wa- 

 ter in Magdalena Bay. The largest of these presents at the 

 front a wall of ice seven thousand feet across and three 

 hundred feet high ; but, as the depth of the water is not 



