136 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



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 fre- 

 quently dismembered by heavy swells that they can not attain any great size. 



The interior of Spitzbergen has never been explored. According to the 

 Swedish naturalists,* who climbed many of the highest mountains in various 

 parts of the coast, all the central regions of the archipelago form a level ice- 

 plateau, interrupted only here and there by denuded rocks, projecting like isl- 

 ands from the crystal sea in which they are imbedded. The height of this pla- 

 teau above the level of the ocean is in general from 1500 to 2000 feet, and from its 

 frozen solitudes descend the various glaciers above described. During the sum- 

 mer months, the radiation of the sun at Spitzbergen is always very intense, the 

 thermometer in some sheltered situations not seldom rising at noon to 62°, 67°, 

 or even 73°. Even at midnight, at the very peak of the high mountain ascend- 

 ed by Scoresby, the power of the sun produced a temperature several degrees 

 above the f reezing-j)oint, and occasioned the discharge of streams of water from 

 the snow-capped summit. Hence, though even in the three warmest months the 

 temperature of Spitzbergen does not average more that 34^°, yet in the more 

 southern aspects, and particularly where the w^armth of the sun is absorbed and 

 radiated by black rock-walls, the mountains are not seldom bared at an eleva- 

 tion nearly equal to that of the snow-line of Norway, and various Alpine plants 

 and grasses frequently flourish, not only in sheltered situations at the foot of 

 the hills, but even to a considerable height, w^herever the disintegrated rocks 

 lodge and form a tolerably good soil. 



The Flora of Spitzbergen consists of about ninety-three species of flowering 

 or phenogamous j^lants, which generally grow in isolated tufts or patches ; but 

 the mosses which carpet the moist lowlands, and the still more hardy lichens, 

 which invest the rocks with their thin crusts or scurfs as far as the last limits 

 of vegetation, are much more numerous. Some of the plants of Spitzbergen 

 are also found on the Alps beyond the snow-line, at elevations of from 9000 to 

 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. According to Mr, Martins, nothing can 

 give a better idea of Spitzbergen than the vast circus of neve, in the centre of 

 which rises the triangular rock known to the visitors of Chamouny as the Jardin 

 or the Courtil. Let the tourist, placed on this spot at a time when the sun 

 rises but little above the horizon, or better still, when wreaths of mist hang 

 over the neighboring mountains, fancy the sea bathing the foot of the amphi- 

 theatre of which he occupies the centre, and he has a complete Spitzbergen 

 prospect before him. Supposing him to be a botanist, the sight of the Ranimcu- 

 lus glacialis, Cerctstium alpinum, Arenaria biflora, and Erigeron unifloriis 

 will still further increise the illusion. 



The only esculent plant of Spitzbergen is the Cochlearia feiiestrata, which 

 here loses its acrid principles, and can be eaten as a salad. The grasses which 



* Within the last few j^ears, no less than three fcientific expeditions have been sent out to Spitz- 

 bergen at the expense of tho Swedish Government. During? the summer of 1858, Messrs. Otto Torell, 

 Guennerstedt, anid Nordenskjold visited the western parts of the archipelago. In 1861 the whole coast, 

 from \c"i Sound to Dove Bay in North-east Land was accurately investigated by Messrs. Torell, Malm- 

 gren, Chydeiiius, etc., and in 1864 Messrs. Nordenskjold, Duner, and Malmgren visited the southern 

 shores and Wjde Jan's Water. A fourth expedition has just left the port of Gothenburg (June, 1868) 



