CHAPTER XII

GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS

Before taking leave of the reader it seems advisable to indicate briefly the general geographical results of our two seasons of exploration in the interior of Spitsbergen, and to state what is now known about the structure of the surface of one of the most interesting areas of arctic land. On Nordenskiöld’s chart, the best map of Spitsbergen existing at the time when we began our labours, both Garwood Land and King James Land are described as covered with “inland ice.” Now, if the phrase “inland ice” merely means glaciers, so that it may be correctly applied to the glaciers of any district of snow-mountains, such as the Alps or Caucasus, it is a useless phrase, and ought to be abolished. Most persons of whom I have inquired receive from it a different impression, and judge it to be descriptive of a complete and continuous icy mantle enveloping a whole country, as Greenland, for instance, is enveloped. In fact, Nansen, in his book on Greenland, always uses the term “inland ice” to describe the great interior ice-covering. “Ice-sheet” is apparently a better descriptive term for such a mantle, and I shall accordingly so employ it. The term “inland-ice,” being essentially vague, should, I think, be erased from geographical literature, or only used as an indefinite term for the land-ice of an unexplored region, the exact nature of which is unknown. As long as a flowing body of land-ice is contained within definite watersheds and mountain ranges, it is a glacier and not an ice-sheet. The juxtaposition of no matter how many glaciers does not form an ice-sheet, but merely a glacial area. It is necessary to be thus particular in definition because, as has been stated above, neither Garwood Land nor King James Land, nor any large part of Spitsbergen, except New Friesland and North-East Land, is covered by an ice-sheet. They are all merely glacial and mountain areas. The discovery of this fact is the principal geographical result of our second expedition. That it is a not unimportant result I now proceed to demonstrate.

The old theory that glaciers not only polish but systematically excavate their beds is practically abandoned. Its supporters naturally considered that the larger the mass of ice the more vigorous would be its excavating action. A great arctic ice-sheet was regarded as an extraordinarily powerful excavator. We now know that moving land-ice does not so operate upon its bed, but, beyond polishing the surface of the rock it covers, has mainly a conservative effect upon it. In the case of a country like the interior of Greenland, wholly buried under ice, the buried land-surface undergoes modelling to a very slight degree, except round the coast. On the other hand, in the case of a glacial region, where mountains rise above the mean level, and where rock-faces are exposed to the rapid denudation that takes place at all snowy elevations, great developments of surface-formation are going forward. In the case of an ice-sheet, the forces acting on the land-surface are conservative; in the case of a glacial region, the acting forces are formative. Hence the immense importance of clearly distinguishing between these two types of ice-bearing country.

Without pausing to describe the particular places or views in Spitsbergen that suggested particular conclusions to my mind, let me rather, for briefness, indicate how it seems to me that one or two well-known mountain groups in Europe have been acted on by glaciers--for instance the Mont Blanc and Bernese Oberland ranges. Both, in their present developed condition, have been carved out of more solid masses which may be described as originally wrinkled plateaus, the original wrinkles having been approximately parallel to their length. Of course the denuding forces, whatever they were, operated simultaneously with the elevating forces; but the two may be considered separately for convenience’ sake, and we may speak of the plateau as first elevated and afterwards denuded. It must, however, be understood that during the earlier stages of the elevating process, water, not snow and frost, was the denuding agent. The culminating point of each plateau was approximately in the position of the highest point of the present ranges. The original main drainage must have run along the lines of the wrinkles; now, in both cases, it runs at right angles to that direction.

In order to indicate my meaning, it is not necessary to reconstruct entirely the original form of the plateau and its lines of drainage; one or two instances will suffice. In the case of the Mont Blanc range,[15] I suggest that originally there was a glacier with its head near the present summit of Mont Blanc, having for its left bank a ridge (or plateau-edge), now represented by the Aiguille du Midi and other _aiguilles_, the Aiguille Verte, the Aiguille du Chardonnet, and the Aiguilles Dorées; whilst its right bank was approximately coincident with the modern watershed as far as Mont Dolent, except between Mont Blanc de Courmayeur and the Tour Ronde, where it has been denuded away. This ancient drainage system has been broken down, and now the snows of the upper reservoirs are all discharged by such glaciers as the Mer de Glace or the Glacier d’Argentière, which cut across one or other of these old containing ridges or plateau-edges. Similarly with the Bernese Oberland, I suggest that the original crinkled plateau was drained along depressions approximately parallel to its length, whereof one was a high glacier basin with its head near the top of the present Finsteraarhorn and flowing W.S.W. over the Grünhornlücke and the Lötschenlücke and down the Lötschenthal. The old watersheds to right and left of this glacier have been driven back by the general disintegration of the plateau-edge, and broken utterly down in various places, so that its snows are now drained away at right angles to its direction by the Great Aletsch and Walliser Viescher glaciers.

In fact, in these cases it is with the glacial drainage as in the Himalayas it is with the rivers. When the great Asiatic plateau was elevated, whereof Tibet alone retains anything approximating to the original surface condition of the whole, the drainage ran off along the hollows in the line of the crinkling of the surface coinciding with the strike of the strata. Now, however, by the operation of rivers eating their way back into the plateau at right angles to the strike of the strata, all the great rivers flow at right angles to their original direction. The Indus was originally a stream no bigger than the Swat River, flowing down the edge of the elevated region. It ate its way through the Nanga Parbat range into the depression which goes on to Gilgit, and thus it stole all the waters of the upper Indus of to-day, which in the remote past, I believe, discharged themselves (over a high region since excavated into mountain ranges) into the Kunar River, and before that into the Oxus. Similarly the Gilgit River has eaten back through the Rakipushi range and stolen the waters of the Hispar-Hunza valley and the Hunza stream has eaten back through the Boiohaghurdoanas range, and so reached the Kilik Pass. It is noticeable that, in each case, the river has broken its way through a range in the immediate proximity of its highest peak, that is to say, just where the fall and gathering of snow has been greatest and the denudation most energetic.

In the case of rivers the eating back process is well recognised and understood. It is not really the work of the river, but it is accomplished by the various forces of atmospheric denudation, by frost and thaw, by avalanches and so forth, all taking place about the head-waters of the stream. I suggest that, under the action of similar forces, glaciers likewise creep back, and that the modelling of snow-mountains out of high plateaus is largely due to this process. According to this theory, though glaciers do not excavate their beds to any great extent, they widen them by carrying away the results of atmospheric and other denudation, and similarly they eat back at their heads. The most striking examples of this process I have seen are in Garwood Land. There, far in the interior, are a series of cliffs, several hundred feet in height. What the origin of these cliffs may have been is immaterial to the question under consideration. They form the front of the remains of the old plateau, which is being and has been eaten away. At the foot of the cliffs are the snowfields of the great glaciers which flow thence in a south-east direction to the head of Wybe Jans Water. By the melting of the snows above the cliffs and on their ledges, and by the action of frost and thaw, the rocks are rapidly broken up. The _débris_ fall upon the glaciers below, and are carried away. If there were no glaciers in this position, the _débris_ would pile up, a slope would be formed, and would presently reach up to the top of the cliff, and protect it from further denudation. The presence of the glaciers below prevents the _débris_ from collecting. The cliff thus continues its existence, and merely moves backward by a steady progress, just as the cliff retreats over which Niagara falls. Where weaker rocks are encountered, or denudation is locally more energetic, the cliff eats backward more rapidly. An embayment is formed, which tends both to widen and to creep backwards, becoming in time a tributary valley. Of such valley heads which have crept back into the plateau we saw several examples; one in particular I remember in the midst of King James Land, which had annihilated a portion of a mountain range dividing two great glaciers, and had thereby caused what had originally been the chief _névé_ basin of one of these glaciers to drain into the other instead of down its own tongue. When two neighbouring embayments, reaching back from the lower level into a plateau, send arms to join one another, or meet obliquely, a nunatak is formed. The nunatak near our farthest point in Garwood Land was produced in this manner.

Keenly possessed by the memory of these phenomena, I went recently to Grindelwald, and was immediately struck by the resemblance in character between the great bluffs of the Bernese Oberland--the Eiger, Mettenberg, and Wetterhorn--and the bluffs of Spitsbergen’s Sassendal. The latter, as we know, were formed, and are still in process of development, by means of the torrents draining the snowfields above, which eat away the plateau and cut back into it, thus carving out a row of flat-topped steep-fronted hills that jut forward into the ever-widening main valley. It seemed evident that the ancient Oberland plateau had been similarly cut down, the excavation not having been accomplished by the grinding action of glaciers pushing forward and filing down their beds, but by the action, first, of torrents, before the plateau was elevated above the snowline, afterwards of glaciers; both torrents and glaciers creeping backwards at their heads, where faces of rock are exposed to rapid atmospheric denudation, and the _débris_ that fall are transported to low levels by the movement of the flowing ice.

It was thus, I suggest, that the Upper and Lower Grindelwald glaciers and the Rosenlaui Glacier invaded the plateau and crept back into the heart of the mountain mass, isolating as high individual peaks the Wetterhorn and Schreckhorn. Originally they were “corrie glaciers,” plastered on to the north face of the plateau--just such glaciers, in fact, as is the Guggi Glacier, which lies in the hollow between the Jungfrau and the Mönch. They have crept farther back than it, because they had the better start, but the Guggi Glacier now emulates their former vigorous initiative. The cliffs at its head are being continually broken and worn away by the action of frost. The rocks that fall from them either tumble on to the _névé_ and are carried down or roll into the _bergschrund_, and so get under the ice, where no doubt they are ground to dust, and may do some excavating in the process. That, however, can only be in the upper regions; lower down, the waters below the glacier are the excavating agent, rather than the glacier itself, except, perhaps, at the edge of some sub-glacial cliff beneath an icefall. In this way the rocks of the north face of the ridge between the Jungfrau and Mönch are being eaten away, and the ridge itself is not merely being lowered, but its crest is being pushed backward towards the south. Every yard of its movement is made at the expense of the Jungfrau Glacier. Let the process go forward for a sufficiently long time, and the area now occupied by the upper basin of the Jungfrau Glacier will be occupied by a snow-basin lying at a lower level, and draining northward down the Guggi Glacier.

Similar, I suggest, was the development of what is now the Great Aletsch Glacier. Originally, according to this theory, the Lötschen Glacier stretched back to the Finsteraarhorn, and had for its left bank a ridge parallel to, but south of, the range of which the Aletschhorn is now the culminating point. The Aletsch Glacier’s original head was on the south face of this range, but the glacier ate its way backwards, its head advanced to the north, finally broke its way right through the range and drew off a portion of the ice of the Lötschen Glacier.[16] The snout of the Lötschen Glacier was thus disconnected from its former _névé_, and a pass (the Lötschenlücke) was formed between them. The _névé_, at what is now called the Place de la Concorde, flowed as a great icefall over the remnant of the old left bank of the original glacier. It no doubt deepened and widened the breach, and, as it did so, lowered the level of the snow in the upper reservoir, whose various branches were thus likewise enabled, each in its place, to creep backwards at the expense of the plateau. In this manner were formed the Ewig Schnee Feld, the Jungfrau Firn, and the other _névé_ tributaries of the present great glacier. The great icefall gradually diminished in turbulence as the cliff beneath it was broken and rounded away, till now it is merely represented by the crevassed area just below the Concordia Hut.

If there is any truth in the theory thus briefly propounded, in a form which must be considered altogether incomplete and preliminary, it follows that the distinction I have endeavoured to make between an icesheet and a congeries of glaciers is a distinction of the first importance; for under an icesheet none of the processes are going forward which are vigorously proceeding in a glacial region. The old idea of Spitsbergen was that its interior consisted of a great icesheet, fringed at the edge by a number of boggy valleys and green hillsides. Our explorations have shown the utter falsity of this conception. Let me now briefly indicate the outlines of the true geography of the main island.

Whether at one time the whole island was enveloped in an icesheet which was gradually withdrawn from the west towards the east, or whether the west part of the island has merely been longer raised above the sea than the east part, I do not attempt to determine. At any rate, it seems to be a fact that the forces of denudation have been longer at work, or, at least, more vigorously at work, all down the west part of the island, and that the resulting mountain formation is most developed in the west, and becomes continually less developed as you proceed toward the east. All down the western region you find highly specialised mountain-forms--peaks and ranges of considerable abruptness and marked individuality. As you advance eastward the mountains become generally more rounded, till the original plateau-form, and even parts of the undenuded plateau itself, are encountered.

Bearing in mind this general structure of the land-surface, it will now be easy to describe the character of different parts of the main island. The whole of the north coast, as might be expected, bears evidence of a more rigorous climate than districts further south. This was specially noticed by us when proceeding down Wijde Bay, at whose mouth the snow lay down to sea-level in the month of August, whilst, twenty miles in, the snowline was almost 1000 feet above sea-level. The northern rim, therefore, may be regarded as a separate geographical division. At the north-west angle of the island is a region of very bold mountains and large glaciers. It is well represented by the beautiful and often described Magdalena Bay. Nothing is known about the interior south-east of it, but some old Dutch charts mark a valley leading from the extremity of Mauritius or Dutch Bay up to a sequestered lake in the hills. Whether the draughtsman intended his winding valley and river to represent a glacier and the lake a snowfield, or whether a true lake and river existed here in the eighteenth century, can only be settled by some one going to look.

Passing southward down the west coast, we come to the seven parallel glaciers ending in the sea, known to the whalers as the Seven Icebergs. These all appear to flow down from a high common snowfield which stretches east toward Wood Bay and south almost to the head of Cross Bay. South-eastward this high plateau is broken by a series of _névé_-valleys, the chief of which discharge themselves towards Ekman and Dickson bays. Their general direction is south-south-east. South of this plateau region comes the mountainous area of King James Land, whose character has been described in this volume. The main watershed runs north and south. A series of parallel glaciers drain south-south-east from it to Ice Fjord. The valley system on the west is less regular, but the glaciers are equally numerous and fine.

The deep north-and-south depression filled by Wijde Bay and Dickson Bay is bordered on the west by a range of mountains, a group of which intrude between and divide the bays. Some of these are of striking form, but no one has ever been amongst them or accurately determined their position. East of the two bays comes the plateau region. Its edge is cut up by a few deep valleys, down which the icesheet of New Friesland sends glacial tongues to Wijde Bay, but east of Dickson Bay the marginal valleys are longer, and no glaciers come out of their mouths. The portion of the plateau between Dickson and Klaas Billen bays is a good deal cut up by deep valleys, such as the Rendal, the Skans valley, and the Mimesdal (all well known to geologists), but there are no large glaciers found upon it. Further east comes a great glaciated area approximating to an icesheet in appearance, but with many exposed faces and peaks of rock. From it several large glaciers flow into the sea, namely, the glacier that ends in the head of East Fjord of Wijde Bay, the glacier that fills a wide valley debouching into Hinloopen Strait opposite the South Waiigat Islands, some more glaciers that empty into Bismarck Strait and that neighbourhood, the series of great glaciers at the head of Wybe Jans Water, and the Nordenskiöld Glacier (specially explored by us) near the head of Klaas Billen Bay. All these glaciers are divided from one another by more or less well-marked watersheds.

The neck of Spitsbergen, which may be defined as bounded on the north by a line from the mouth of Nordenskiöld Glacier to Wiche Bay, and on the south by the Sassendal and the depression across to Agardh Bay, is a district that would well repay exploration, and is easily accessible from the Post Glacier at the head of Temple Bay. Nowhere are better illustrated than here the phenomena of mountain formation by plateau degradation under the action of rivers and glaciers. In the east are the remains of an ice-sheet; in the west are deep and wide glacier and river valleys. Between the two are many mountain ranges, and some peaks of considerable height and abruptness.

A line drawn from the head of Van Keulen Bay to Whales Bay forms the southern limit of the next region to the south--the region that I call Adventure Land, using the old name which in the case of Advent Bay has been clipped of its last syllable in the present century. It is a country of boggy valleys, rounded hills, and relatively small glaciers. Originally it was one large plateau formed of soft, almost horizontally bedded rock, except along its west margin. It has therefore been penetrated by wide valleys radiating in all directions and cut down almost to sea-level. A range of rather fine peaks lies along the west coast; behind them are some large glaciers descending north into Green Harbour and south to the mouth of Low Sound. Then the undulating country begins. Several valleys lead inland from Coles Bay, whilst from Advent Bay starts the Advent Vale with its many branches. From Low Sound a series of boggy valleys strike in to north and south. At the north angle of its head opens the deep valley of the Shallow River (after the Sassendal the largest valley in Spitsbergen), whose upper part has never been explored. The eastward prolongation of Low Sound, which was known to the Dutch as Michiel Rinders Bay is very poorly charted, but we know that at its north angle there is a secluded inner harbour, with a big ramifying valley leading back from it, while at its extreme east corner three large glaciers debouch together. One of these probably connects by a high snowfield with the head of Strong Glacier descending to Whales Bay.

Last comes the south division of the island, over which we had a panoramic view in 1897 from the summit of Mount Hedgehog. Unfortunately a roof of cloud covered the glaciers, and we could only see tops of mountains rising clear above it. The north-west angle of this region was explored in 1897 by Mr. Victor Gatty,[17] who found it to consist of a ring of snowy mountains surrounding the _névé_ of the Fox Glacier, which discharges into the so-called Recherche Bay. A gap or col, south-east of Dunder Bay, separates this group from a range of hills running for some distance south along the coast, and called Roebuck Land. The extremity of these hills abuts against the right foot of Torell Glacier, one upper bay of which rests against the hills immediately south of Recherche Bay, whilst another stretches inland to the east as far as the main watershed of the island. There are one or two other approximately north and south ranges of hills lying west of this watershed. East of it the plateau-character resumes its predominance. The southernmost part of the island, south of Horn Sound, is dignified by the boldest mountain range in the country, that of the Hornsunds Tinder, which lie west of the watershed, and run almost due north and south. East of them are at least two lower parallel ranges, beyond which the ice-covered country seems to dip to the sea.

Of the other islands in the Spitsbergen group, North-East Land is the largest. It is known, from Baron Nordenskiöld’s exploration, to be covered with a true icesheet, the edge of which descends to the sea all along the south-east coast. The north coast and the small islands off it altogether resemble the northern belt of the west island. The west belt is a low undulating region, from which the icesheet has retreated in relatively recent times.

In the sea east of Spitsbergen are two islands whose existence has long been known. They were named Wiche Land, after an old navigator. Walrus hunters have landed on them, but they were first really explored in 1897 by Mr. Arnold Pike.[18] The west island, now called Swedish Foreland, has a high flat-topped backbone. The east island, King Karl’s Land, consists of two hills, about 1,000 feet high, united by a low flat isthmus. There is no ice-sheet on either island and only small unimportant glaciers.

I have never landed on Barents or Edge Islands, though I have seen them from east and from west. Neither possesses an icesheet. Both are practically devoid of glaciers down their west coast, and have large glaciers in the east. The whole of the south-east of Edge Island is occupied by a great glacier ending in the sea. Barents Land has several sharply pointed peaks, but the Edge Island hills are mainly flat-topped, like those along the east coast of the main island.

Prince Charles Foreland now alone remains to be considered. It is very badly represented on the existing chart. At its southern extremity is an isolated hill. Then comes a very flat plain of about fifty square miles, raised but a few feet above sea-level. North of it is a mountain range consisting of fine, sharp snow-peaks. It is cut off on the north by a deep depression, running in a south-west direction from Peter Winter’s Bay, which, though marked south of St. John’s Bay on the chart, lies some miles north of it. North of Peter Winter’s Bay and Valley the mountain range is continued; but the peaks, though fine in form, are not so high as those of the south group, but they send down eastward an almost uninterrupted series of glaciers into Foreland Sound. Further north are yet lower snowy hills, which end in the bold headland called Bird’s Cape or Fair Foreland.

APPENDIX

ACCOUNT OF HERR G. NORDENSKIÖLD’S TRAVERSE OVER THE GLACIERS FROM HORN SOUND TO BELL SOUND IN 1890.[19]

_June 15th, 1890._--At six o’clock in the evening we landed by boat at the foot of Rotges Mount at a spot where a small valley gave access to the mountain above. We imagined that on the other side of this mountain we should meet with the smooth inland ice and that it would extend all the way along to Bell Sound. After taking a hurried farewell of our comrades, we buckled on our ski, put our knapsacks on our backs, and commenced our course up the little valley. When we reached its highest point, however, we found that it was connected with another valley which led down to Horn Sound. We were therefore obliged to climb the face of the mountain on the north side of the valley, which was extremely laborious, because the snow was frozen so hard that we could not use our ski on the steep slope. One of us went in front and stamped holes for the feet in the hard crust--tough work in which we constantly relieved each other. The rest followed in his steps. At midnight we had mounted a ridge, uniting two summits, and here we rested for an hour. The temperature of the air was 28° Fahrenheit and the altitude 994 feet above sea-level.

We continued on the 16th in a northerly direction, but were obliged to stop again after a few hundred steps, because a thick mist shrouded the whole landscape. When, after a little while, this cleared off, we hurried up and descended the other side of the ridge towards a huge glacier. Down this we made good speed and in a short time were close to the smooth snow-slopes. The mountains in this district are built up of the so-called Hekla-Hook strata--hard slates, quartz, and dolomite. The mountains which belong to this system always possess much more precipitous and wilder outlines than those which are built up of the softer rocks belonging to newer formations. Many of the former are probably extremely hard or perhaps impossible to climb; for example, Hornsunds Tind. This is probably the case with many of the steep-pointed peaks around the wide expanse of snow over which we travelled. They gave the landscape a wild and desolate beauty.

In the north, on the other side of the glacier, lay another mountain range with several lofty summits. In the west a heavy bank of fog obscured the view the whole time. Probably the sea would be visible in this direction in fine weather. Sometimes the fog-bank was driven up the glacier by the wind, and enwrapped us so completely that we were obliged to retreat for a time. In the east numerous summits were visible, and the glaciers in this direction did not appear to be connected with the inland ice. The snow-mantle which covered the glacier-ice was perfectly smooth; there was not even a spot to break the dazzling whiteness, not the smallest unevenness on which the eye could find a resting-place. This accounted for one under-rating the distances in this district more than usual, as happened to us in the case of the mountain on the southern (? northern) side, because we thought we only had before us a snow-covered sloping valley, not worth thinking about, which from its depth could not possibly take more than half an hour to traverse. In reality it was only after several hours’ walking that we gained the summit of the opposite ridge.

It was long after midday on the 16th when we reached that summit. The height above the sea at the spot where we crossed was only 2215 feet, but on the east and west were several considerable heights. We attempted to scale one of these which lay nearest to us on the east, so as to obtain an uninterrupted view over the country; but, after we had with great difficulty dug a few hundred steps in the hard surface and crept up so far, it was found impossible to go any farther. We were then 2457 feet above sea level and could easily recognise again from this point the highest point of Hornsunds Tind. The mountains to the west of us seemed to be of considerable height and also easy to ascend. In the north the snow-covered ridge on which we were fell almost precipitously down to a considerable glacier. We were therefore obliged to make a little to the west before we could begin our descent.

Even here the slope was steep and covered with a crust, hard and shining like ice, so that our advance became pretty dangerous to our necks, and ended in our losing our balance and rolling down the slope at top speed without being able to stop. After we had happily reached level ground, collected ourselves, and gathered together our widely scattered baggage, we set forward over the glacier. It sloped gently downwards and promised a connection with the wide field of inland ice in the north-west. A little further down the glacier the outlook became more extended. We had now only a few kilometres left to the inland ice proper,[20] which spread out before us like a level white sheet bounded in the distance by blue peaks. Late in the evening we put up the tent and rested a few hours at the edge of the glacier. After a long search we were lucky enough to discover water on a slope. It was the first water we had seen since leaving the coast. As it was so early in the year we found neither pools nor runlets on the surface of the glacier. Our supply of spirits was rather scanty and only sufficed for warming up our food, not for melting the snow; hence, while travelling over glaciers and the inland ice we suffered much from thirst, and were often compelled to eat snow, which is said to lower the strength considerably.

On _June 16th_ we rose at 11 P.M., and began our journey over the inland ice proper. The temperature of the air was 31° F. The weather was lovely, not a cloud was visible in the sky, and the atmosphere was wonderfully clear. We first passed a number of mighty moraines, which were heaped up where the smaller glacier joined the inland ice. At the very brink of the latter flowed a small brook. The surface of the inland ice itself was perfectly even, covered with fairly hard frozen old snow. No crevasses could be distinguished along the whole of our route, and only in a few places did slight hollows betray the existence of such.

We first went toward some high mountains which rose out of the ice some kilometres distant. They formed the spurs of a range of mountains, running north and south, which continued up to the end of the mountains at Cape Ahlstrand, east of Recherche Bay. In the west, along a width of more than ten kilometres, the inland ice opened into the sea (it bears the name of Torell Glacier). In the east the horizon was bounded by the inland ice. To the north-west it extended, shut in between two mountain chains, unbroken to Recherche Bay, to whose large glacier it joins on. That was the way we took.

After some hours’ journey, in the early morning of the 17th we reached the foot of the mountain mentioned above, which forms the southern point of the eastern range of mountains. At the foot of the mountain we found several small watercourses, and therefore chose this place for a halt. A large number of fallen blocks at the mountain’s foot afforded a strange sight. The part of the inland ice from the east here joined that from the north. A bank of gravel, which stretched like a black streak towards the west, probably formed the middle of the moraine. The height above the sea at this point was 358 feet.[21]

After some hours’ rest we continued north-west over the inland ice, which was smooth in all directions and free from crevasses. We had already been a long time out on the endless white plain when, at nine o’clock in the morning, we pitched the tent to get a little sleep. The height of our resting-place above the sea was 1011 feet. We had walked by night because, notwithstanding that the temperature does not rise above 39° F. in the shade, the heat when the sun was high was quite unbearable. After midday signs of a change of weather appeared, and heavy clouds began to rise behind the mountain summits. We hastily got up again, but after a few hours’ walking we were enveloped in a dense mist. We continued, however, for some hours, steering our course by a pocket compass which we had brought with us. On the night of the 18th we stopped because we feared to make our way among the northern coast mountains, which could not be very far distant from us now. All the spirits were finished, and our store of provisions was by no means abundant.

Next day (19th) we tried to advance toward the coast in spite of the fog, which had lifted at intervals and given place to a heavy snowstorm, a terrible hindrance to our progress. The snow was very wet and fastened in large lumps on Björling’s ski, which were not covered with sealskin. Our ski, too, which had been stripped of part of their skin-covering by the hard snow-crust, slid very heavily. Björling preferred to go on foot and carry his ski on his back, but he found this pretty hard work. We soon noticed that we were already quite amongst the mountains and, after searching about for a long time in the fog for a way forward, we finally came to a halt, recognising the necessity of waiting until it lifted somewhat.

We set up our tent near a steep snow-slope, evidently leading down into a broad valley. As it drew on towards evening the fog lifted a little. Right down in front of us spread a broad valley, apparently the continuation of a bay. In the south-south-west there appeared to be sea, and in the north we thought we could also see the water. I thought that the bay in the north-west was Dunder Bay, and that we must have strayed somewhat too far to the west. Our provisions were scarce; there would only be sufficient to last the four of us one day; it was therefore necessary to find the ship without delay. Björling, partly on account of the unfitness of his ski, was thoroughly exhausted and was unable to travel any farther. I therefore determined to leave him in the tent with the sleeping-bags and the remaining stores, and with Erikson and Joakim, unencumbered by impedimenta, to endeavour to reach the ship and thence send to rescue Björling. The way to the ship however was longer than we supposed, for the _Lofoten_ did not lie in the harbour in the inner part of Recherche Bay as I had expected. The bay being ice-packed, the ship lay off Cape Lyell, a circumstance which added a good ten kilometres to our distance.

It was only after nine hours’ unbroken march, tired and hungry indeed, that we reached the _Lofoten_, and our way would certainly have been longer still had we not, after walking a few hours almost due east, thought we could see water on the horizon, and so were induced to take a more northerly course. After we had followed this direction for a time, Erikson declared he could see a ship in the distance. Our joy was great when I ascertained with the field glass that three masts were visible a long way off to the north. The ice over which we had passed was continuously smooth. Only the last few kilometres nearest the sea were very full of crevasses, generally covered by snow-bridges, which we could cross on our ski without difficulty. Luckily for us the ice on the inner harbour of Recherche Bay was strong enough to bear, so we avoided a long detour.

We continued on the other side of the bay to Cape Lyell over a large glacier, terminated in the north by a precipitous ice-wall, below which begins a wide expanse filled up with moraines and cut up by numerous crevasses. We did not see this precipice at first from above, and were nearly falling over it on our ski, but just managed to pull up at the last moment. After following the edge of the glacier for a good distance to the west, we at last succeeded in finding a place where a snowdrift had built a bridge upon which we could get down. At last we stood on the beach, and only a couple of gunshots off lay the _Lofoten_. Firing our revolvers and shouting loudly, we aroused the captain’s attention and were soon safe on board. It was six o’clock in the morning of the 19th.

My first care was to send some men back to rescue Björling. Unfortunately it was several hours before any one could start. Klinckowström had gone away in one of the boats with part of the crew to the east side of Recherche Bay, hoping to meet us there. A message was sent off to him immediately, and his boat’s crew were soon on board. Klinckowström offered to go himself with two men to rescue Björling. The three skisters were soon ready for their journey. As they rowed in a light boat to the bottom end of Recherche Bay they shortened the way considerably. Following the west side of the bottom of the glacier between the mountain and the ice, they found ski tracks which they endeavoured to follow right up to the tent. After an absence of about six hours they returned. They had been able to follow the tracks for about a couple of hours or so, but the snow, which had fallen heavily high up among the mountains, had stopped them completely. Under such circumstances nothing remained for them but to turn back with their errand unaccomplished. There was however no very great reason for anxiety, for the sleeping-bags and provisions enough for one man for several days had been left in the tent.

It cleared up again a little on the 20th, so I sent off Joakim, who had been my companion and consequently knew the position of the tent; two men accompanied him. On the morning of the 21st one of them came back with the news that they had certainly found the tent but that Björling had left it. They had found a card with this communication--that “after waiting in vain for one and a half days he had started with all possible speed to the west beach of Recherche Bay.” He had however clearly mistaken Dunder Bay for this, and started in quite the wrong direction, as his tracks plainly showed. Joakim followed up this track while the other two returned on board. I now sent a boat round Cape Lyell to Dunder Bay to meet Björling there. Joakim, after following his track for a distance, had overtaken Björling who was on his way south; he came back then with the boat, and on the afternoon of the 21st we were all together on board again.

The ski expedition thus described shows that the inland ice of West Spitsbergen differs considerably from that of North-East Land as well as of Greenland. It consists in this (at least at the time of year when we undertook our expedition), namely, a perfectly level tract covered with snow without any of the crevasses and mounds which generally make expeditions over glaciers and inland ice so dangerous and difficult. Glacier-rivers, fountains, and glacier-lakes, which are so often met with in Greenland, are here altogether absent. Similar formations are also wanting in North-East Land’s inland ice, but its surface is more uneven; crevasses and channels are very common. This circumstance--viz., the fact that the inland ice of West Spitsbergen seems to be very much easier to traverse than glacier ice in general--gives a certain importance to the plan of measuring an arc of meridian in this district, a proposal which has been suggested several times. A number of triangulation points ought to be established on the mountains, which are surrounded on all sides by the inland ice. This might have been thought to be very difficult, but, far from proving an obstacle, the inland ice forms a capital medium for connecting the points of triangulation. To convey instruments and equipment on proper sledges for some tens of kilometres over this smooth surface would surely be no very severe task.

A few remarks are called for by this pleasant account of a very interesting little expedition. The inland-ice referred to was not any part of an ice-sheet and in no wise resembled the icesheets of Greenland and North-East Land. It was merely the snowfield of Torell Glacier, which consists of two great arms, one coming from the north and reaching to the watershed behind Recherche Bay, the other from the east, where it is limited by the main mountain-backbone of the island, the orographical continuation of the Hornsunds Tinder. The time of the expedition being the month of June, the glaciers and snowfields were still deeply covered with winter snow, which buried the crevasses out of sight. Later on, no doubt, there would be no difference in character between Torell Glacier and the Nordenskiöld and other glaciers explored by us. The same waterlogged snow, the same large lakes, the same deep and broad torrents, must be formed in all the glacial regions of Spitsbergen. Hence it follows that the month of June is specially favourable for expeditions over glaciers in this part of the world, for then the chief impediments to progress have not been formed, the weather is likely to be fair and the surface of the snow to be hard and smooth. Unfortunately it is not till the end of June that, under present steamship arrangements, the island is cheaply accessible. An exploring party desiring to land upon Spitsbergen at the end of May could only do so by coming up in a vessel specially hired to bring them.

FOOTNOTES

[1] K. Vetenskaps Akad. Hand. Bihang, ix., No. 2, p. 46.

[2] This is doubtless the direction of West Fjord of Wijde Bay, but it seems doubtful whether any considerable proportion of it can be visible from the summit of De Geer’s Peak. All along the south-east side of West Fjord lies a continuous range of hills, a photograph of which is now before me. The lowest point of this range between Cape Petermann and Mount Sir Thomas at the head of the fjord can scarcely be as low as 500 feet, whilst almost the whole of the range is 1000 feet high. The average width of the fjord is about two miles, but just at one point it is five miles wide. The height of De Geer’s Peak is given as over 1200 metres, say 4000 feet. Its distance from West Fjord is about thirty geographical miles. If the intervening hill range happens to sink below the level of about 600 feet, exactly in the line of sight to the place where the fjord is five miles wide, the extreme edge of the water would just be visible; yet, even then, no considerable body of water could be seen. But De Geer states that there were no hills between the fjord and his peak. Is it not possible that what he saw was the East Fjord, at whose head are no mountains? Some undetected iron in the rock on which he stood might be responsible for the compass deviation. The rocks of Spitsbergen are full of such surprises.

[3] “My Arctic Journal,” London, 1894, p. 232.

[4] “Die Schwedischen Expeditionen nach Spitzbergen und Bären-Eiland ausgeführt in den Jahren 1861, 1864, and 1868 unter Leitung von O. Torell und A. E. Nordenskiöld. Aus dem Schwedischen übersetzt von L. Passarge.” Jena, 1869. 8vo, pp. 470 _et seq._

[5] Mount Chydenius is, however, north-_west_ of Mount Edlund.

[6] These are continued northward by some lower snowy hills ending in the bold Fair Foreland or Birds’ Cape.

[7] The first English explorers of Spitsbergen, Hudson and other servants of the Moscovy Company, formally took possession of the country on behalf of the King of England. They named it “King James, his New Land.” This name has long been disused. Now that the interior of the island begins to be explored, names are needed for the different natural divisions of the country. I have therefore given the name of King James Land to the mountainous area included between Ice Fjord and Foreland Sound.

[8] I cannot give the exact altitude, because Nielsen, who was carrying the instruments, dropped the aneroid here and smashed it before I had registered the reading.

[9] It is greatly to be regretted that no scale is attached to these six maps of harbours, which cannot therefore be applied with certainty to any general map of Spitsbergen.

[10] Garwood was fortunate enough to discover a fine specimen of this.

[11] The position as determined by the Swedes does not agree with the position determined by the Austrians.--_Vide_ R. von Barry, _Zwei Fahrten_, &c. Vienna, 1894. 8vo.

[12] As to the whole project, see: N. Dunér and A. E. Nordenskiöld, Förberedande Undersökningar rörande utförbarheten af en Gradmätning på Spetsbergen. K. Svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd. vi. No. 8. In 1891 a Swedish committee was appointed to reconsider the question, and a further scheme was drawn up by Professor Rosen and published as a pamphlet in 1893. It has now been decided by the Swedish Academy of Sciences that the scheme shall be carried out, perhaps in conjunction with Russia, and expeditions to that end are to be sent to Spitsbergen in 1898 and following years.

[13] A translation of his interesting account of this expedition is inserted as an appendix to the present volume, by kind permission of Baron Nordenskiöld.

[14] The summit of the Aiguille Verte is 3700 feet above the Jardin.

[15] Herr Imfeld’s new map is the best on which to examine this theory.

[16] The Walliser Viescher Glacier was similarly employed.

[17] _Alpine Journal_, vol. xviii., p. 501.

[18] Vide _Geographical Journal_, 1898.

[19] Translated by the Rev. E. Shepherd from Herr G. Nordenskiöld’s paper, _Redogörelse för den Svenska Expeditionen till Spetsbergen 1890_, published in _Bihang till K. Svenska Vet. Akad. Handl._ Bd. 17, Afd. 2, No. 3, pp 10-17.

[20] The _névé_ of Torell Glacier.

[21] 109 metres. From the context it seems certain that this should be 309 metres, = 1014 feet.

INDEX

Advent Bay, 1, 67, 90, 121, 126, 154, 221

Adventure Land, 36, 121, 220

Agardh Bay, 220

Ahlstrand, Cape, 229

Andrée and his balloon, 155

Atmospherical phenomenon, curious, 180

Baldwin, Mr., 67

Bar, The, 70

Barents Land, 28, 46, 47, 183, 223

Barrel-vaults of ice, 51

Bear Island, landing on, 191

Bernese Oberland, glacier action in the, 210, 213

Birds Cape, 224 Nesting-places of, 3, 50, 65, 79, 98, 108, 133, 143, 165, 184

Blomstrand Harbour, 71, 145 Mound, 71, 145

Boat, troubles with our, 167

Bornemisza, Baron, 154, 155

Calving of a glacier, 13, 74, 77, 140, 141

Chydenius, Mount, 28, 43

Clouds, low-lying, 63, 104, 113, 131, 138, 140

Coal Bay, _vide_ Coles Bay Haven, 71, 147

Coles Bay, 68, 221

Cookeries, whaling, 151, 160, 162

Crevassed glacier, 16, 77, 110, 133

Crevasses, Depth of, 143 Difficulties with sledges amongst, 16, 132, 133

Cross Bay, 10, 71, 151, 218 Mountains, 104, 122, 131

Crowns, The Three, 72, 85, 109, 116, 119, 120 Ascent of one of, 119 Glacier, 72, 105, 114, 122

De Geer Peak, 21, 22, 23, 48, 50 Ascent of, 27

Deceptive appearances on snowfields, 24

Deer Bay, 71

Diadem Peak, Ascent of, 124

Dickson Bay, 33, 39, 218, 219

Dubbin, Norwegian and other, 49

Dunder Bay, 221, 231, 233

Dutch Bay, 218

Eating-back rivers and glaciers, 210, _et seq._

Ebeltoft’s Haven, 151

Edge Land, 223

Edlund, Mount, 28, 41 Ascent of, 42

Eiderdown, 65

Ekman Bay, 73, 92, 116, 121, 218

Ekstam, Herr, 1, 67

Elevation of the land, 59

English Bay, 69, 70, 85

Equipment, 18

Exile Peak, 124

_Expres_, The, 2, 154

Fair Foreland, 224

Falling ice, 177

Fleur-de-Lys Point, 5

Fog on snowfield, Puzzling effect of, 31 Travelling through, 21, 31, 32, 33, 34

Foreland, Prince Charles’, 68, 122, 223 Sound, 68, 122, 224

Fox Glacier, 221

Foxes, 88

_Fram_, Crew of the, 2, 192

Garwood, E. J., 1, and _passim_ Land, Description of, 56, 57, 58, 212, 219 Land, Wide view over interior of, 38, 46

Gatty, Ascent by Mr. Victor, 221

Glacier, Ice-tunnel in a, 137 Phenomena, notable, 51, 111, 128 Torrents, 79, 83, 103, 106, 111 Cliffs, 9, 77, 141

Glaciers, Action of on their beds, 207 Advance of, 138 Calving, 13, 74, 77, 140, 141 Ending in deep water, 10 Ending in shallow water must advance, 11 That eat back at their heads, 60

Goose Glacier, 159, 168, 170, _et sqq._ Haven (Horn Sound), 157, _et sqq._ Islands (Ice Fjord), 64

Green Harbour, 220

Greenland and Spitsbergen, Contrast between, 36, 61

Heat on the snowfields, 87, 100, 108, 130

Hedgehog, Ascent of Mount, 170

Heley Sound, 44

Highway Dome, 91 Pass, 90

Himalayas, How rivers have “eaten back” in the, 210

Hofer Point, 158

Horn Glacier, 166 Sound, Visit to, 157, _et sqq._, 225 To Bell Sound over Torell Glacier, 225, _et sqq._

Hornsunds Tinder, 121, 165, 170, _et sqq._, 222, 226, 227

Hyperite Hat, 67

Icebergs, 141, 142, 145, 147

Ice-encrusted rocks, 178 Flat below a glacier’s foot, 160 Honeycomb, 19, 55, 81 Sheets, 36, 37, 206, 207, 216

Inland ice, 206, 234

King James Land, 89, 96, 218 King Karl Island, 223

Kings Bay, 70, 138, _et sqq._ Landing in, 74

King’s Highway, 72, 76, _et sqq._, 115 Expedition up, 76, _et sqq._

Kittiwake Glacier, 165

Klaas Billen Bay, 5, _et sqq._, 48, 55, 62, _et sqq._, 219

Lakes, Burst Glacier, 53, 100, 137

Lerner, Dr., 3

Lovén Islands, 72, 141, 143 Mount, 45

Low Sound, 221

Lyell Cape, 231

Lyktan, 33

Magdalena Bay, 218

Mauritius Bay, 218

Meridian arc in Spitsbergen, Proposal for measurement of a, 173, 234

Michel Rinders Bay, 221

Mimesdal, 7, 17, 219

Mitra Hook, 71, 152

Moraines, Struggle with sledges up and over, 15, 80, 134

Mount Blanc Range, Previous form of, 209

Mountain exploration, Difficulties of, 95

Mountains, Scale of, 91, 118

New Friesland, 207, 219

Nielsen, Edward, 22, 32, 84, 125, 127, 131, 141, 170 Mount, 76, 78

Nordenskiöld, Baron, A. E., 41, 156, 174, 222 Herr Gustaf, 176, 225 Glacier, 6, 8, _et sqq._

Nordenskiöld Gl., Expedition up, 15, _et sqq._

North Cape of Norway, 191

North-East Land, 207, 222, 234

Nunataks, 38, 84

Osborne Glacier, 98, _et sqq._

Palæolithic climbing, 163

Peter Winter’s Bay, 69, 223

Pike, Mr. Arnold, 158, 223

Plateaus carved into mountain ranges by rivers and glaciers, 57, 208

Post Glacier, 220

Pretender Pass, 104 Peak, 73, 85, 105, 107, _et sqq._ Scramble on, 113

Prince Charles Foreland, 68, 122, 223

Prismatic Ice, 102

Pyramid, The, 7

Quade Hook, 70

Queens, The, 73, 85, 101, 104, 105

Recherche Bay, _vide_ Schoonhoven

Reindeer, Destruction of, 9, 144

Roebuck Land, 222

Rotges Mount, 225

Russian trappers, 69, 151, 159

Sabine, Sir Edward, 173

St. John’s Bay, 68, 99, 223

Sassendal, 213, 220, 221

Schoonhoven (Recherche Bay), 221, 222, 229, 231

Scoresby, Dr., 71

Scoresby’s Grotto, 145

Screes, 114, 119

Seven Icebergs, The, 218 Islands, 154

Shallow River Valley, 221

Shoes, Lapp, 49

Silence of the snowfields, 89, 123

Skans Bay, 3, 219

Ski, 24, 30, 34, 37, 55, 93, 100, 106, 123, 125, 127, 129, 194, _et sqq._, 230 Fastenings of, 197 First attempts on, 25, 201 Footgear for, 199 Glissading with, 203 In the Alps, 204 Kinds of, 196 Makers of, 200 Records with, 202 Staff for, 200

Sledges, Misfortunes with, 55, 79, 80, 103, 132, 139

Snow blown by a gale, 35

Snowfield, Different aspects of surface of, 94, 98 Travelling over, 21-50 Waterlogged, 82, 102, 124

Snowshoes, Canadian, 26, 30, 32, 49 Norwegian, _vide_ Ski

Spitsbergen, Geography of, 217

Stonehenge Rocks, 164

Stones, Falling, 110

Storm on a snowfield, 34, 35

Strong Glacier, 221

Svanberg, Mount, 43

Svensen’s troubles, 23, 32, 34, 35, 36, 40, 48, 50, 66, 84, 101, 119, 129, 149, 153, 156

Temple Bay, 220 Mount, 66

Terrier Peak, 18, 30, 47, 50, 52

Teufelsdrökh on North Cape, 193

Thordsen Plateau, 3, 28, 93, 219

Tibet, Partially undenuded plateau of, 210

Torell Glacier, 222, 228, _et sqq._, 235

Tourists in Spitsbergen, 1, 67, 155

Trevor-Battye, Mr. A., 157

Views, Notable, 6, 17, 19, 23, 28, 33, 38, 46, 48, 71, 87, 92, 105, 112, 114, 120, 126, 136, 140, 144, 177, 180, 182, 192

Weather, Bad, 22, 34

Whales Bay, 221

White Mountain, 41 Ascent of, 45

Wiche Bay, 220 Land, 45, 158, 223

Wijde Bay, 29, 39, 122, 217, 219

Winter, Approach of, 136, 166, 171, 180, 188, 189, 190

Wood Bay, 218

Wybe Jans Water, 28, 39, 41, 43, 46, 47, 183

Zeehonde Bay, 69

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