GLACIERS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. 107 



the preceding, and from it glaciers descend to the ocean-level. 

 The Folgefon snow-held, still farther north, occupies an area 

 of about one huudred square miles, from which three glaciers 

 of about the same rank as the preceding descend to the sea. 



To the north of the Scandinavian Peninsula the islands of 

 Spitzbergen, Xova Zernbla, and Franz-Josef Land, all lying 

 above latitude 70°, and the latter north of latitude 80°, are 

 deeply covered with glacial ice in their higher portions. 

 Speaking of Magdalena Bay in Spitzbergen, Dr. G. Hartwig 

 writes : 



Four glaciers reach down this noble inlet ■ one, called the 

 Wagon- Way, is 7,000 feet across at its terminal cliff, which is 

 300 feet high, presenting a magnificent wall of ice. But the 

 whole scene is constructed on so colossal a scale that it is only 

 on a near approach that the glaciers appear in all their impos- 

 ing grandeur. . . . Besides the glaciers on Magdalena Bay, 

 Spitzbergen has many others that protrude their crystal walls 

 down to the water's edge ; and yet but few icebergs, and the 

 largest not to be compared with the productions of Baffin 

 Bay, are drifted from the shores of Spitzbergen into the open 

 sea. The reason is that the glaciers usually terminate where 

 the sea is shallow, so that no very large mass if dislodged can 

 float away, and they are at the same time so frequently dismem- 

 bered by heavy swells that they can not attain any great size.* 



The edge of the coast of the island of Franz-Josef Land 

 is quite generally formed by the precipitous ends of glaciers 

 a hundred feet or more in height and of unknown depth. 



Iceland, too, has its glaciers in its more elevated portions, 

 though nowhere do they come down to the sea-level. The 

 snow-field of Yatna Jokull, with an extreme elevation of 

 6,000 feet, has an area of 3,000 square miles. From recent 

 reports it would seem that the glaciers of Iceland have for 

 some time been rapidly advancing. 



In Asia glaciers are found to a limited extent in the 

 Caucasus Mountains, especially near the central portion of 



* " Polar World,"' pp. 135, 136. 



