102 



THE vegetations" OF SPITZBERGEI^ COMPAEED WITH THAT 



OF THE ALPS AND PYEEN^EES. 



By Chas. Martins, 

 Prof, of Natural History, and Director of the ^'Jardin des Plantes,'' &c., at 



Montpellier. * 



INTRODUCTION. 



Situate under the meridian of Central Europe, and of the Scandinavian 

 Peninsula, between 76°30 and 86° 50 Latitude Spitzhergen is, so to 

 speak, the outpost of our Continent towards the ITorth. In these islands 

 where winter reigns for six months in the year, organic life almost 

 becomes extinct for want of heat and light ; here it is that the naturalist 

 gathers the last plant and observes the last animal ; here is the extreme 

 limit of the Fauna and Flora of Europe. Beyond all is death and a bank 

 of eternal ice extends to the northern pole. In Spitzhergen itself the snows 

 only melt towards the edge of the sea in privileged localities, but the 

 inountains always remain white even during the three months of summer. 

 All the valleys are piled up with massive glaciers, which descend to the 

 sea level ; so that these islands are a faithful image of that geological epoch 

 which immediately preceded our own, — the glacial. During tliis period a 

 mantle of ice covered the whole of the North of Europe as far as the 53rd 

 degree of latitude. All the mountain valleys, such as the Yosges, the 

 Jura, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, the Caucasus, the Himalaya 

 and even those of JSTew Zealand, were occupied by glaciers, which extended 

 to a greater or less distance over the neighbouring plains. Spitzhergen 

 realizes then, before our eyes, the image of a geological phase of which the 

 traces are almost everywhere recognizable. The small number of animals 

 and plants which inhabit these islands are such as can best resist the cold, 

 and require the least amount of solar heat, the source of all organic life. 

 Under this double point of view the vegetation of this portion of the Arctic 

 lands traced out by a traveller who has seen it under two different aspects 

 and completed by the study of ancient and modern explorations deserves to 

 be well known by all Naturalists interested in Botanical Geography. 



* Translated with the Author's permission from the " Memoires del' Academic des 

 Sciences et Lettres de Montpellier t. vi. p. 145, 168. — 1865, 



