218 LAMPLUGH : SHELLY MORAINE OF THE SEFSTROM GLACIER. 
of the Spitsbergen glaciers that we visited, with large-scale maps 
■of several that have been carefully measured, is contained in 
Prof. De Geer's Guide de I'Excursion au Spitzberg " (Stockholm, 
1910), which was placed in our hands when we started on the 
journey. To this publication I am indebted for all the data 
respecting the movements and dimensions of the glaciers. 
FORMER GLACIATION OF SFITSBERGEN AND PRESENT CONDITIONS. 
From the researches of the Scandinavian geologists we 
know that during some portion of Quarternary time, presumably 
during the Glacial Period of lower latitudes, nearl}^ the whole of 
^Spitsbergen was buried under ice, and all the great fiords, such 
as Ice Fiord, were filled with confluent glaciers.^ It is remark- 
able, however, how scanty are the remaining traces of this great 
glaciation on the present tracts of bare land. The only indubitable 
relics of these former conditions that came under my notice in 
the parts that we visited were a fe^^' transported blocks, in some 
<?ases reduced to patches of frost-riven splinters, on the bare 
plateaus and escarpment-slopes ; as. for example, on the upland 
above Cape Wijk. 
In the long interval since this period of glaciation, there has 
been a time when the land stood lower than it does now, as is shown 
1)3' the successive terraces of raised beach, which are strikingly 
displayed in most of the branches of Ice Fiord (see PI. XXV.), 
Ad here the highest beach recognized by De Geer lies about 430 feet 
(130 m.) above present sea-level. During this stage, the climate 
appears to have been less severe than now, as some of the existing 
glaciers which come doA\ ii to the sea in the northern arms of Ice 
Fiord have encroached upon the raised beaches, showing that 
there was less ice in the vaUeys when these beaches were formed. 
Moreover, the shells contained in the lower beaches bear witness 
to a somewhat milder climate than that of to-day, as the}^ include 
at least three species — Liiorina rudis, Cyprina islandica and 
Mytilus edulis — which are not now living in Ice Fiord ; and 
I For a good geaeral account and resume of the geology of Spitsbergen, including the Glacial 
and Post-glacial phenomena, see "Beitrage zur Geologie der B^ren-Insel, Spitzbergens und 
des Kfinig-Karl-Landes," by Prof. A. G. Nathorst, Bull. Gtol. Instil, of Upsala, Vol. X. 
(1910), pp. 261-415, in which full references are given to the previous literature. 
