COL. FEILDEN AND MR. GELDART ON SPITSBERGEN PLANTS. 40 
the area, which is now an extensive low-lying valley. With these 
physical advantages, it is not surprising that the flora in the neigh- 
bourhood of Advent Bay should he remarkably abundant. 
It is a difficult matter to convey to the minds of others the 
optical impressions made on one’s self, and, probably, no two persons 
would agree precisely on the subject ; but I will endeavour, in 
a fe\v words, to give you my impression of the general features 
of a Polar flora, taking Advent Bay as my text, and the period 
of the year the first week in July. Looking at the shore from 
seaward, say from a distance of a couple of English miles, the 
tract of low-lying moorland which extends for a mile or so from 
the base of the hills, with a gradual slope to the sea, has a brown, 
mournful hue, broken here and there by small streaks of green, 
which mark the rivulets issuing from the melting snow-patches. 
Cold looking grey boulders are scattered about, and the actual 
seashores are either rock or beaches of shingle, which appear, at 
a little distance, to be completely barren. Glancing upwards to 
where the coast range of mountains raise their heads on high, you 
will observe that a great deal of the winter mantle of snow has 
been melted off. Many of the crags are too precipitous for snow to 
lie upon them at any time, and for miles the snowy mantle has 
been withdrawn from the steep slopes of fah/s that descend for 
a height of eight hundred to a thousand feet from the overhanging 
precipices. In the wide re-entering angles between the prominent 
mountain faces, the snow lies in vast quantities; and it is this 
alternation of black-looking cliff, peak, sombre rock-slope and white 
curtain, which, in a great measure, give to the west Spitsbergen 
coast-line its weird and solemn majesty. 
I am asking the reader to focus his eye on a small piece of 
coast-scenery in the neighbourhood of Advent Bay, and not to 
let his view wander too far afield to where the frozen peaks of the 
interior rise from a crystal sea, while mighty glaciers fill the valleys 
and fiords. The sublimity of that spectacle is so entrancing, that 
if once your sight is directed to it, my description of the humble 
flora, will, I am afraid, be passed by. 
On landing at Advent Bay, and crossing the shingle beach, you 
will note that yellow and white Drcibas are plentifully sprinkled 
between the stones ; patches of Saxifraga oppositifolia in lovely 
pink bloom, and clumps of Silene ctcaulis in full flower, take the 
VOL VI. 
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