THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
WITH SKI & SLEDGE 
 
All rights reserved 
 
i 
 
WITH SKI a? SLEDGE 
 
 OVER ARCTIC GLACIERS 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR MARTIN CONWAY 
 
 ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 
 TAKEN BY E. J. GARWOOD 
 
 LONDON 
 J. M. DENT &f CO. 
 
 29 & 30 BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 
 1898 
 
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON <Sr Co. 
 At the Ballantyne Press 
 
C74- 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The story of the exploration of the interior of Spits- 
 bergen, begun in 1896, as described in my former 
 book entitled " The First Crossing of Spitsbergen" 
 is continued in the present volume, which is to be 
 regarded as an appendix to that. In 1897 Mr. 
 E. J. Garwood was once more my companion. 
 The illustrations to this book are from photographs 
 taken by him. I here desire to return him my 
 thanks, not only for them, but for many another 
 kindness, for the unbroken good-fellowship of his 
 company, and the stimulus of his society in travel. 
 One of our two Norwegian companions, Nielsen by 
 name, was most serviceable to us. The other was 
 a hindrance. I have called him Svensen in this 
 book, but that was not his name. To render the 
 narrative more complete, I have inserted translations 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 of such published accounts of the expeditions made 
 by Baron N ordenskiold, his son Gustav Nordenskidld, 
 and Baron De Geer t as relate to what is vaguely 
 called the " inland ice " of Spitsbergen. I take this 
 opportunity of once more calling attention to the 
 fact that the common spelling " Spitsbergen " is an 
 ignorant blunder ; the correct spelling of the name 
 is that employed throughout this book and now 
 adopted in the official publications of the Royal 
 Geographical Society. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. KLAAS BILLEN BAY I 
 
 II. UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER ... 15 
 
 III. BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY .... 37 
 
 IV. BY WATER TO KINGS BAY .... 62 
 
 V. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 76 
 
 VI. OSBORNE GLACIER AND PRETENDER PASS . . 95 
 
 VII. THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES . . . . 113 
 
 VIII. RETURN TO KINGS BAY 132 
 
 IX. KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND .... 154 
 
 X. ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG .... 170 
 
 XI. ON THE USE OF THE SKI IQ4 
 
 XII. GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 2O6 
 
 APPENDIX 225 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Kings Bay Glacier Frontispiece 
 
 The "Expres" in Advent Bay . . . facing page 2 
 
 Rough Ice 16 
 
 The Colorado Plateau 57 
 
 The Head of Kings Bay . . . . 71 
 
 An Easy Place 80 
 
 The Three Crowns from Kings Bay . . 116 
 
 Torrent in a Glacier Ice-foot . . . ,, 161 
 
 Horn Sunds Tinder . . . . . ,, 172 
 
 A Ski-fastening ,, 198 
 
 A Lapp Shoe ,, 199 
 
 New Friesland from Hinlooper Strait . ,, 207 
 
 Bluffs of the Sassendal . . . . 213 
 
 Farewell ,, 224 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 IN the morning of July 9, 1897, Mr. E. J. Garwood 
 and I, along with a small cargo of tourists, were 
 delivered by the steamship Lofoten on the shore 
 of Advent Bay, Spitsbergen, just ten days after 
 leaving London. Our party was completed by 
 two men of Vesteraalen, Edward Nielsen and 
 Svensen by name. We had arranged to be met 
 at Advent Bay by the small steamer Kvik, which 
 was coming up to cruise about the Spitsbergen 
 coast during the summer. It was annoying to 
 learn that, though she left Tromso a few days 
 before us, she had not come in. Probably she 
 had been obliged to put back for shelter from 
 the heavy weather. We had no option, therefore, 
 but to pitch our tents and wait. 
 
 Companions were not lacking. By our camp 
 sprang up the tents of Herr Ekstam, the Swedish 
 botanist, and of a Norwegian sportsman ; further 
 on was a large green tent flying a German flag. 
 There were half-a-dozen hunters' sloops at anchor 
 in the bay, whilst the tourist inn was alive with 
 
 A 
 
2 KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 hurrying men, amongst them Bensen and jovial 
 Peter Hendriksen of the Pram's crew. There 
 was plenty for us to do with our baggage, which 
 had all to be unpacked and recombined, some to 
 stay here till we should return for it, the rest to 
 go with us on our first expedition in search of the 
 inland ice. It was a lovely day for this open-air 
 work a real piece of good-fortune, for nothing is 
 so injurious to baggage as to become well soaked 
 in detail within and without at the very start of a 
 journey. White clouds patched the blue sky and 
 scattered their shadows over the brilliantly green 
 water of Ice Fjord. The snowy ranges beyond 
 were distinct and detailed as though quite near 
 at hand. The air was mild and delightful, and 
 the day was gone before it seemed well begun. 
 Towards evening a gale sprang up and made the 
 tents boom and strain ; but we cared not at all, 
 rejoicing rather in the evidence of being once 
 more free from the incumbent protection of walls 
 and roofs. 
 
 A wretched morning followed, with drizzle and 
 damp, too painfully reminiscent of last year's 
 weather in the region of bogs. We had nothing 
 to do but to sit inactive and bored, waiting for 
 our steamer which did not come. But, though 
 the Kvik was missing, there appeared through the 
 mist our old friend the Expres, which last year 
 carried us over a thousand miles round Spits- 
 bergen's coasts and about its bays. She was 
 
SKANS BAY 3 
 
 chartered for this season by a German party of 
 sportsmen, Dr. Lerner, Herr G. Meisenbach, and 
 another. They came to see us, and, on hear- 
 ing of our wretched plight, most kindly offered 
 to take us to Klaas Billen Bay and tow our boat 
 over. We jumped at the chance, and an hour 
 later were comfortably on board, with our men 
 and baggage in our whaleboat behind. 
 
 Little more than two hours' steaming brought 
 us to anchor in Skans Bay, a small sheltered inlet 
 cut out of the plateau-mass of Cape Thordsen. 
 We landed at once on the low west shore, where 
 a spit of shingle separates a small lagoon from 
 the bay. Here we left the men to pitch their 
 tent, and set forth inland over the foot of the hill- 
 slope. Garwood presently began breaking stones, 
 so I wandered on alone and was soon out of 
 sight. The surroundings would probably strike 
 an unsympathetic eye as dreary. To me they 
 were delightful, though heavy clouds did hang 
 on the tops of the bluffs and all was grey or 
 purple in the solemnity of dim light and utter 
 solitude. Presently came a bold waterfall on the 
 west, where a towering gateway opens upon a 
 secret corrie in the lap of the hills, a place well 
 known to fulmar petrels, who nest hereabouts in 
 great numbers and were swooping to and fro in 
 their bold flight before the cliffs ; known, too, to 
 the foxes, to judge by their many tracks. On I 
 tramped over the level valley floor, picking my 
 
4 KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 way amongst boggy places, leaping or wading 
 the channels as they came. All the common 
 arctic flowers were in full bloom, thdugh 
 sparsely scattered about, for this is not one of 
 Spitsbergen's fertile places. 
 
 At the head of the bay is a large, flat area, 
 where what once was water is turned to a kind 
 of land. From this flat a series of valleys open, 
 all scooped out from the plateau to which at their 
 heads they rapidly rise. A large valley to the 
 north-east leads over, I suppose, to the Mimesdal ; 
 further in is a shorter parallel one with snow at 
 the head. The main valley, however, curved 
 round west of north, and it was this that naturally 
 drew me forward, for in a new country nothing 
 pulls a traveller on so powerfully as a corner 
 round which he cannot see. There lies the 
 unknown with all its possibilities ; it is like 
 the fascinating future towards which youth so 
 joyously hastens. Thus I pushed on and on. 
 Round the corner there came into view a 
 glacier filling the valley's head and descending 
 from the high snowy region behind. There was 
 a peak standing further back and looking over at 
 me. The flat valley-floor was a labyrinth of river 
 channels, across which, for the view's sake, I 
 waded, thus reaching a mound of old moraine, 
 on whose top I sat down to survey the melan- 
 choly, lonely scene. Birds flying about the cliffs 
 south of the glacier were the only living creatures 
 
QUIT SKANS BAY 5 
 
 in sight. There were no reindeer, and not even a 
 footprint or a cast antler. I smoked my pipe in 
 peaceand feltonce again the charm of utter solitude. 
 
 Returning to the bay, I met Garwood, and we 
 went on board the Expres together to enjoy the 
 generous hospitality so warmly offered to us by 
 our kind German hosts. Reindeer was cooked, 
 tins opened, corks drawn, and a fine time we had 
 of it for several hours, till at 2 A.M. we dived into 
 our sleeping-bags, Garwood and I lying in the 
 selfsame places where we so often wooed sleep 
 the year before. 
 
 Next morning (July n) the weather was 
 splendid. About 10 o'clock we packed ourselves 
 and our belongings into our whaleboat, bade 
 farewell to our hosts, and rowed off down the 
 calm bay toward Fleur-de-Lys Point, a cape 
 named by the French corvette in 1892. Its base 
 is formed of gypsum, into which the sea eats, so 
 that great fallen masses of the white rock fringe 
 its foot like stranded ice-blocks. A heavy sea 
 was breaking amongst them and tossing towers of 
 spray aloft. We toiled greatly in this broken 
 water and against the wind encountered at the 
 bay's mouth ; when the corner was rounded the 
 wind was aft, and we had only the big follow- 
 ing seas to trouble us. They rose ominously 
 behind, each in its turn threatening to overwhelm 
 our boat ; but, as a matter of fact, little water 
 actually came on board. Thus the noble cliffs of 
 
6 KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 Skans Bay were left behind, and the deep Klaas 
 Billen Fjord opened ahead. The scenery of it is 
 dull till near its head, the slopes being most barren. 
 We kept up the west side and close in shore, thus 
 gradually rinding quieter water. 
 
 About two hours up, a little bay tempted us to 
 land for lunch and a hill-scramble ; for what can 
 one see from the water-level ? It is only when 
 you look down on lake, bay, or ocean that the 
 picturesque value of water is perceived. I suppose 
 I may have climbed five hundred feet or so, Gar- 
 wood lingering behind to smash rocks. When I 
 turned round on the top of a knoll the view took 
 my breath away. The parallel curving lines of 
 great waves, so big compared with us and our 
 boat, now seemed, with their crests of foam, a 
 mere delicate decoration on the wide surface of 
 the blue bay, upon which the cloud shadows were 
 purple patches. In the barren opposite coast 
 opened a big valley that ran in to a snow moun- 
 tain in the east. Further round to the left came 
 the splendid Nordenskiold Glacier, the goal of 
 our present expedition a splendid river, almost 
 cataract, of ice, sweeping down, in bulging cre- 
 vassed domes, between fine rock masses from the 
 utterly unknown interior. Its cliff front, rising 
 from the blue water, was fringed with icebergs, 
 some of which, great castellated blocks, floated 
 out by wind and tide, had been passed at the 
 mouth of Skans Bay. 
 
THE MIMESDAL 7 
 
 After lunch we rowed on, still hugging the 
 shore, for the seas were big further out, past the 
 mouths of one or two minor valleys leading rapidly 
 up to the snow-field above, and each therefore 
 fitted with its glacier-tongue. Thus the mouth of 
 the wide Mimesdal was reached a valley interest- 
 ing to geologists and often visited by previous 
 explorers, though none of them has drawn the 
 vaguest sketch of its plan. We would gladly have 
 spent a day in it, but the water was so shallow at 
 its mouth that we could find no place where the 
 boat could be drawn up ; so, as the wind had 
 gone down, we decided to face the loppy, criss- 
 cross sea at once, and camp on the west side of 
 the bay. Our course took us near many icebergs, 
 one a blue tower at least fifty feet out of water. 
 The sea splashed and boomed finely against them. 
 
 About a quarter of the way across we opened 
 a full view of a great glacier at the north-west 
 head of Klaas Billen Bay, flowing down a valley 
 approximately parallel to the Mimesdal, between 
 mountains of remarkable form. The peak be- 
 tween it and the Mimesdal, then covered in 
 cloud, we afterwards found to be one of the 
 most striking mountains in this part of Spits- 
 bergen. The Swedes have named it the Pyramid. 
 The glacier leads so far back, and is of so 
 gentle a slope, that, for a moment, we paused 
 to debate whether we should not choose it, 
 rather than Nordenskiold's Glacier, as an avenue 
 
8 KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 of approach to the interior ; for at that time we 
 were still under the impression that all the gla- 
 ciers of this region were so many tongues coming 
 down (as do the glaciers of Greenland) from a 
 great inland ice-sheet. Thus the only problem 
 we felt it necessary to consider was, which glacier 
 was the easiest to climb on to and draw our 
 sledges up. Obviously the slope of this glacier 
 was better than that of the Nordenskiold, whose 
 crevassed nature now became unpleasantly evi- 
 dent. On the other hand, it did not come down 
 to the sea, but poured itself out in the usual low- 
 spreading dome on a wide, alluvial, mud-flat. 
 We had no desire to drag and carry our things 
 over more land than could be helped, so chose 
 the Nordenskiold Glacier and pulled on. 
 
 In a short two hours' rowing we were under 
 the east bank of the bay, where we soon found a 
 quiet cove, and on the shore of it the remains of 
 one of Baron de Geer's camping grounds of last 
 year. There was a place flattened for a tent, there 
 were stones built together for a fire, and there 
 was driftwood collected and cut up for burning 
 what more could be desired ? The land here- 
 abouts was a large plain stretching a mile or so 
 back to the foot of the hills, whose line of front 
 is carried on by the ice-cliff of the Nordenskiold 
 Glacier, which thus ends in a little bay of its own. 
 The plain is relatively fertile and should be the 
 home of many reindeer, but all have been 
 
LANDING AT GLACIER'S FOOT 9 
 
 ruthlessly shot out, so that not a hoof-mark did 
 we see, and the only cast antlers were deep in 
 the growing bog. Around this coast are many 
 pools cut off from the bay by ridges of gravel, 
 pushed up by grounded ice when it is pressed 
 against the shore. Here many eider-ducks were 
 feeding, and plenty of skuas, terns, and other 
 birds filled the air with their cries. I walked 
 towards the glacier to find the best way on to it, 
 and was disgusted to discover that between us 
 and the portion of its front that ends on land, 
 and up which we must go, was a considerable 
 stream, flowing in many channels down a stony 
 fan. It was possible at high tide, when a certain 
 submerged moraine was covered, to row round 
 to near the mouth of this stream, but not further, 
 so that we should have to carry all our stuff 
 through the water and over the stones, a distance 
 of perhaps half a mile. 
 
 These things we observed because we came 
 to observe them, otherwise our whole attention 
 would have been absorbed by the magnificence 
 of the ice-front of the glacier ending in the sea. 
 We had beheld its full breadth from far away, 
 with the long curdled slopes of ice curving round 
 and coming down to it from the far-away skyline 
 of snow. Now we saw its splintered face in 
 profile from near at hand. How shall I convey 
 the faintest conception of its splendour to a reader 
 who has seen nothing similar ? It was not like 
 
10 KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 what I may call the normal arctic glacier, which 
 spreads out at its foot into a very wide, low dome 
 ending all round in an even curve. This glacier 
 is formed by the union of many ice-streams, 
 whose combined volume is wedged together at 
 last between rock walls, and thus broken up 
 by compression. The sea front, therefore, is not 
 a mere cliff, but is the section of a maze of 
 crevasses, and even seracs. There were over- 
 hanging towers and enormous caverns, jutting 
 masses and deep holes, all toned in every 
 variety of white and blue and green, shadowed 
 in purple by passing clouds or shining in 
 silver splendour beneath the direct rays of the 
 clear sunlight. The green water was oftenest 
 calm, doubling the vision, which, in some lights, 
 seemed too delicate to be a material reality. 
 Changes of atmospheric clearness and illumina- 
 tion produced infinite varieties of effect, so that 
 the ice-front was never twice the same in appear- 
 ance. Sometimes it faded away into mist, some- 
 times it stood out to its remotest end in astonishing 
 clearness of detail. But, under whatever conditions 
 it might be beheld, it was always beautiful, surpris- 
 ing, and rare. 
 
 The glacier ends in very shallow water, so that 
 the ice is aground. Very few glaciers in Spits- 
 bergen end in deep water ; the one example that 
 occurs to me is the well-known glacier in Cross 
 Bay, which I have only seen from a distance. 
 
GLACIER SNOUTS 11 
 
 For a glacier of given volume and breadth ending 
 in shallow water a definite limit is fixed by the 
 nature of things. A block of ice will float in a 
 depth of water about seven-eighths of its own 
 depth. Thus, the end of a glacier eighty feet 
 thick would be floated away in seventy feet of 
 water, were it not for the cohesion of the mass of 
 the glacier, and the fact that the ice is not reached 
 by the water except on one side, and so does not 
 try to float, but merely forms an embankment to 
 the sea. When the end of the glacier is crevassed 
 the water is enabled to find its way in, to some 
 extent, and thus does something towards lifting 
 partially detached blocks. The snout of a glacier 
 ending in deep water is operated on as a whole 
 by the body of water, and tends to be carried 
 away in very large masses owing to the forward 
 movement of the ice and the leverage of tides. 
 But a glacier ending in shallow water is broken 
 away chiefly by being undermined, to some 
 extent by the mechanical action of the waves, 
 but much more by melting in contact with 
 water often several degrees above the freezing 
 point. When the snout of the glacier is crevassed 
 this undermining effect operates very rapidly. 
 What the depth of water actually is below the 
 foot of the cliff we were unable to determine ; I 
 do not think that it is more than ten feet at low 
 tide, the height of the cliff being from eighty to 
 one hundred feet. It must be borne in mind that 
 
12 KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 the glacier brings down a considerable quantity of 
 moraine, most of which is dumped into the water 
 just at the foot of the cliff. Thus the depth is 
 constantly being filled up, and if the process went 
 forward without any countervailing action the ice- 
 cliff would be cut off from the sea by a wall of 
 moraine within a very short time. That it is not so 
 cut off is partly due to the denuding action of the 
 waves, but more to the fact that, when the depth 
 is diminished to a certain definite level, the glacier 
 must advance over the newly-formed soil, and 
 so the process is continued. Thus, every glacier 
 ending in a cliff in shallow water must be advan- 
 cing. As soon as it ceases to advance it must 
 deposit a moraine embankment round its base, 
 cutting itself off from the water. When this has 
 happened the cliff ceases to exist ; a terminal 
 slope takes its place. Streams of water flowing 
 from it cut down and distribute the moraine. The 
 water then continues to be invaded by a debris 
 fan, formed of alluvial matter in the ordinary way. 
 The glacier previously mentioned, which is at the 
 north-west corner of Klaas Billen Bay, is an 
 example of a glacier which, doubtless, once ended 
 in the fjord, but has been lifted up and cut off 
 from the water by moraine materials brought 
 down by itself. 
 
 It was as delightful as it was interesting to sit 
 and watch the noble glacier-front, in all the 
 wealth of its colouring and the wonder of 
 
CALVING OF THE GLACIER 13 
 
 its form. At high and low tide the ice was 
 stable, and hardly any falls took place ; but at 
 other times falls were frequent, most frequent 
 towards half-tide. Then the ice-cliff fired great 
 guns along all its battlemented front in rapid suc- 
 cession. At moments of good luck one chanced 
 to be looking just where the fall took place. Some- 
 times a great tower would slowly bend over ; at 
 other times its base would crush together, and 
 it would start sliding vertically. In either case, 
 before it had moved far it would be intersplit and 
 riven into smaller masses, which, falling together 
 with a sound like thunder, would ding and splash 
 up the water into a tower of spray, a hundred feet 
 high perhaps. Then, if they fell in a deep place, 
 the ice-blocks would heave and roll about for a 
 while, lifting the water upon their sides and 
 shaking it off in cataracts, till at last they came to 
 rest, or went slowly floating away amongst count- 
 less fellows gone before. Meanwhile the circling 
 waves started by the fall would be spreading 
 around, washing up against the multitude of float- 
 ing blocks in the bay, disturbing the equilibrium 
 of some and toppling them over or splitting them 
 up, thus starting new rings of waves. At last the 
 great waves would come swishing along the shore, 
 louder and louder as they approached, till they 
 broke close by the tent, and washed up to where 
 our whaleboat was lying, hauled just beyond 
 their reach. Between whiles was heard only the 
 
14 KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 ceaseless murmur of the bay and the gentle 
 soughing of the wind. 
 
 At high tide we rowed our boat round as near to 
 the foot of the glacier as we dared go, and pitched 
 our final camp by the stream already mentioned. 
 It was nearly a mile from the foot of the easiest line 
 of approach up the moraine on to the surface of 
 the glacier. We hauled our heavy boat up high 
 and dry with great toil, assembled in our larger 
 tent the baggage we were going to leave behind, 
 arranged the loads for our two sledges, and, in 
 repeated journeys, laboriously dragged and carried 
 them over bog and stones to the foot of the steep 
 moraine, greatly disturbing the minds of a number 
 of terns, who had their nests on the stony ground 
 near the channels of the river. They swooped 
 almost on to our heads, and hovered, screaming 
 frightfully, not more than a yard out of reach. 
 No bird that flies has a more frail or graceful 
 appearance than a tern. When the sun shines on 
 them as they hover amongst the floating ice-blocks 
 they seem the very incarnation of whatsoever 
 is purest, gentlest, and most fair. But there is in 
 every tern the pugnacity of a bargee and the 
 fractiousness of seven swearing fishwives. They 
 are everlastingly at war with the skuas and the 
 kittiwakes, and they always seem to come off best 
 in an encounter. We, at any rate, were not sorry 
 to quit their ground and leave them glorying over 
 our retreat. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 UP THE NORDENSK1OLD GLACIER 
 
 OUR preparations being completed, we set forth 
 up the Nordenskiold Glacier, toward the unknown 
 interior, on the morning of July 13. The first 
 struggle up the steep, moraine-faced front of the 
 glacier involved all our forces. The stones, lying 
 upon ice, were loose and large. They slipped 
 from under, or fell upon us. We took one sledge 
 at a time and lightened it of half its burden, but 
 still it was hard to drag. It wedged itself against 
 rocks when pulled forward, but never seemed to 
 find a stone to stop its backsliding. Our aim 
 was to reach a tongue of hard snow in the upper 
 part of a gully. Coming to it from the side, the 
 sledge swung across and almost upset us all. At 
 last we reached the top, returned for the second 
 sledge, then (two or three times) for the bundles, 
 and so finally gained our end after hours of 
 toil. Once on more level ice, things went better, 
 though not well. To begin with, the sledges 
 were badly loaded and had to be rearranged. 
 Then, though the surface of the ice sloped but 
 
16 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 gently, it was very lumpy and the lumps turned 
 the sledges this way and that. Garwood and I 
 pulled one, the two men the other. Perspiration 
 ran off us. Our estimate of the possible length 
 of the day's march diminished. 
 
 Nordenskiold Glacier, as has been said, descends 
 in a great curve. It comes down from the north 
 and ends flowing west. It receives two large 
 tributaries from the east. If we had kept right 
 round the immense sweep of the glacier's left 
 bank, we should have avoided a peck of troubles, 
 but must have travelled miles out of the way, 
 for our destination was northward. As it 
 was, we steered a middle course, and thereby 
 came into a most unsafe tangle of crevasses. 
 The step-like descent of the ice prevented 
 seeing far ahead. We were constantly in hope 
 that the next plateau would be smooth, but 
 each as it came was crevassed like its prede- 
 cessor, whilst the slopes between were almost 
 impassable. Any one who knows the Corner 
 Glacier, below the Riffelhorn, will be able to 
 picture this part of the Nordenskiold Glacier. It 
 was almost as badly broken up as that. To drag 
 sledges up such a place is no simple job. Most 
 of the crevasses were half full of rotten winter 
 snow, but it was only by bridges of this unreliable 
 substance that they could be crossed at all. Ulti- 
 mately we found ourselves in a cul-de-sac, cut off 
 ahead, to right, and to left by huge impassable 
 
FIRST GLACIER GAMP 17 
 
 schmnds. There was nothing for it but to go 
 back a distance that had been won by more than 
 an hour's toil. We left the sledges lying, and 
 scattered to prospect. A way was eventually 
 discovered whereby, when every one was fairly 
 worn out, the worst part of the ascent was com- 
 pleted. After crossing the last big crevasse, it 
 was agreed that enough had been done. Camp 
 was pitched about 700 feet above the level of the 
 bay. 
 
 Now only had we leisure to look about and 
 drink in the fine quality of the scenery ; not that 
 a man is blind to scenery when engaged in toil- 
 some physical exertion, but he is incapable of 
 analysing it or noticing its more delicate and 
 evanescent qualities. For this reason I maintain 
 that the observers in explorations should be freed 
 as much as possible from the mere mechanical 
 labour of making the way. Every foot-pound of 
 energy put into sledge-hauling, for instance, pre- 
 cludes more important mental activities. This 
 was not Garwood's opinion at the beginning of 
 our journey, but he came round to my way of 
 thinking before the end. From the level of our 
 camp we looked down the whole riven slope o 
 the glacier to the broad blue bay below, dotted 
 all over with floating ice and flashing eyes of light 
 from the hidden sun. Farther away came the 
 bleak recesses of the Mimesdal, and a range of 
 snow mountains to the right. There was a level 
 
 B 
 
18 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 roof of cloud at an altitude of about 1000 feet, 
 casting on the hills that richness of purple tone 
 so characteristic of Spitsbergen's dull days. Most 
 beautiful was the glacier-cascade, and especially 
 the immediate foreground of crevasses, on to, or 
 rather into, which we looked down and beheld 
 the splendid colour of their walls. They are far 
 bluer than Alpine crevasses, almost purple indeed, 
 in their depths. Here, of course, on the broken 
 ice were no streams, though below the crevasses 
 there had been so many that the air was filled 
 with their tinkling, whilst the deep bass of 
 moulins was continually heard. Ahead came 
 the clouds, into which the glacier disappeared, 
 the last outlines visible being low white domes 
 of the usual arctic sort. It was pleasant to sit in 
 the still, cool air while ice-lumps were melting 
 and other preparations making for supper. 
 " Look ! look ! " cried Nielsen, " there is a bird 
 as white as snow." It was an ivory gull come to 
 inspect us. The only other visitors were fulmar 
 petrels, whose nesting-place on the cliffs of the 
 Terrier we were to discover a few days later. 
 
 Our camp consisted of two small tents, one an 
 old Mummery tent of Willesden drill, the other 
 six inches larger in all directions, and made of a 
 slightly stronger canvas. Both tents had floors 
 of the same material sewn in an excellent ar- 
 rangement, rendering them perfectly safe in any 
 gale that blew. They served us well throughout 
 
HONEYCOMB ICE 19 
 
 the summer, and are still in almost as good con- 
 dition as when they came from Edgington's 
 hands. Long I sat in silence and alone, watch- 
 ing the opalescent bay with its ever-varying 
 colours and floating icebergs, the purple hills 
 striped and capped with snow, the wide, deeply- 
 penetrating, mysterious valleys, the great icefield 
 sloping down in front, and the frame of cloud 
 arching in the whole. The crunching of snow 
 and ice by human feet and the sound of voices 
 showed that the others were returning from 
 their ramble, hungry and with good news, as it 
 proved, for the way was open ahead. 
 
 Next morning (i4th) we pursued our onward 
 journey, still struggling through crevasses for 
 about an hour, then finding a fairly even though 
 none too gentle slope, up which it was possible 
 to advance steadily. So far the hard ice of the 
 glacier had formed the surface. It gradually 
 became less and less firm, and turned into a kind 
 of icy honeycomb, built of a granular fabric that 
 crushed together ankle-deep under the foot. 
 The cells of this honeycomb ice were of all sizes, 
 some as big as a lead-pencil, others large enough 
 to hold the foot, others again to fall into bodily. 
 Each cell was more or less filled with water, 
 whilst the top was often disguised by a lid of ice 
 with a little snow on it, so that the existence of 
 the water-hole was not suspected till one trod 
 through into the freezing puddle. We came to 
 
20 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 understand what to look out for, at this level of 
 Spitsbergen glaciers, and to walk warily ; but at 
 first we plunged and stumbled about in the most 
 annoying fashion, becoming very wet, cold, and 
 out of temper. Further up, the snow covering 
 was more continuous, till, at a level of about 1000 
 feet above the sea, we were no longer walking 
 upon ice, but upon frozen snow. In fact, here 
 was true neve, the like of which our last year's 
 experiences had led us to believe did not exist in 
 Spitsbergen. 
 
 This is only one of many differences observed 
 between the strangely temperate region south of 
 Ice Fjord, explored by us in 1896, and the region 
 north of Ice Fjord, and so close to it, explored in 
 1897. The former is to be described as sub-arctic, 
 the latter is truly arctic in every sense. The Sas- 
 sendal region is a land of bogs and disintegrating 
 hillsides, with cataracts and many waters. The 
 Klaas Billen and King's Bay area is ice-covered at 
 levels which are ice-free so few miles away. The 
 causes of this great contrast are obscure. 
 
 All too soon the cloud-roof descended upon us, 
 or rather we ascended into it. Rain began to fall. 
 The snow being soft and the slope continuing 
 steep, our work waxed laborious again, and so 
 continued. We steered, by compass, a little east 
 of north, the direction of the east foot of the 
 group of mountains against which the glacier, in 
 bending round, leans its right bank. The highest 
 
DE GEER PEAK 21 
 
 of these was known to us as De Geer Peak, be- 
 cause it was ascended by De Geer in 1882. In the 
 thickening fog our men began to betray unwilling- 
 ness to proceed. They mistrusted us and our 
 compass. At sea, they said, a man could steer by 
 compass, but this was not sea, and they had never 
 heard of going overland after a magnetic needle. 
 Four hours' marching preceded a halt for lunch 
 in the midst of the undulating white desert, which 
 stretched away on all sides into clouds. Not far 
 off was a blue lake, like a sapphire set in silver a 
 lovely object, and the only thing clearly visible 
 except a single crevasse and the ghosts of the 
 bases of the mountains. At times the clouds 
 parted a little, and then we could discover a sea- 
 fog creeping up from below. In the gap between 
 it and the lower level of the clouds was a far-off 
 glimpse of Ice Fjord, with the hills of Advent Bay 
 beyond. 
 
 When fog and clouds joined we set forward 
 again, and worked on steadily uphill. The snow 
 grew softer and softer. We fastened one sledge 
 behind the other, and harnessed ourselves all four 
 to the front one, but the change profited little. 
 Hour now succeeded hour, and nothing came in 
 sight. The only variation was in the degree of 
 slope. Every few minutes we stopped to observe 
 the compass, and always found that we had bent 
 away to left or right of the proper track ; some- 
 times we were even going at right angles to it. 
 
22 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 When all were tired, we pitched camp on a 
 flat place, which we thought might prove to be 
 the plateau at the foot of De Geer Peak. The 
 tents were set up with some difficulty, in a 
 fluster of wind, upon the soft snow, and moored 
 ahead and astern to the two sledges, the site being 
 about 1500 feet above sea-level. The temperature 
 was a few degrees below freezing. The oil-stove 
 burning in the tent was a comforting companion, 
 though we changed our opinion about it when 
 the steam from the pot condensed on the roof 
 and fell in rain all over our things. 
 
 All night long the wind howled, the clouds 
 grew denser, and snow fell with increasing heavi- 
 ness. When we looked forth in the morning 
 nothing was visible, beyond our camp, in any 
 direction. The tents and sledges were almost 
 snowed under. As we had no notion in what 
 direction to bend our steps, nor what any part of 
 the interior might be like, it was necessary to wait 
 for a clearance ; so we lay in our sleeping-bags, 
 cooked, played dominoes with numbered scraps 
 of paper, and otherwise killed time. The men, I 
 fear, were pretty miserable, for the expedition had 
 no interest to them and they were full of all sorts 
 of vain terrors. They confessed that for fear of 
 bears they had been unable to sleep ! They hourly 
 expected to be buried under some avalanche of 
 snow or to fall into some hidden pit. Nielsen 
 soon got over his terrors, but they increased upon 
 
SECOND CAMP 23 
 
 Svensen to our no small discomfort. As Nielsen 
 said : " Svensen has never been away from his 
 old woman before. He is accustomed to go fishing 
 in the morning, and then to come home for his 
 dinner. He isn't used to the kind of food that 
 you give him, and he isn't used to this sort of 
 place." The more we knew of Nielsen the better 
 we liked him. He talked excellent English, with 
 a smack of the sea in every phrase. He was 
 always on the alert to be helpful, and had plenty 
 of conversation and some good stories. Svensen 
 knew no English, except a few seamen's phrases. 
 He was a good enough fellow, but he hated his 
 novel surroundings, and was only counting the 
 days till he should reach his home again. 
 
 Not till 7 o'clock in the evening did the fog lift, 
 and then it disclosed no very distant view. Close 
 at hand were the rocks at the foot of De Geer 
 Peak ; we were encamped at the exact point we 
 had meant to reach a small plateau or shelf of 
 snow on the glacier's extreme right margin, just 
 where the rock slope of the mountain begins. In 
 all other directions the white neve went undulating 
 away, trending in the main uphill to north and 
 east, downhill to the south. There was no 
 definite object in sight when we turned our backs 
 to the tent and the crags ; elsewhere vaguely 
 outlined clouds drifted about, brushing the snow 
 with apparent aimlessness. It was a view composed 
 of different tones of white. Ice-blink filled the 
 
24 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 air. It was impossible to estimate distances with 
 the smallest degree of accuracy. Looking out of 
 the tent-door, I saw what I thought was a bear 
 moving along most improbable of beasts at such 
 an altitude. I was in dread lest the men should 
 see it, and become yet more unwilling to face the 
 lonely interior. A moment later the light changed, 
 and the bear was revealed as a bit of waste paper 
 fluttering along in the breeze. In a few minutes 
 the fog came down again, not very densely. Gar- 
 wood and I were for starting on at once, but the 
 men considered that it was time for supper, with 
 bed to follow. On the whole we decided to let 
 them have their wish, and to use the hours for 
 trying the ski. 
 
 Ski (pronounced shee) are the snowshoes of 
 Norway and Sweden, which Nansen's books have 
 been chiefly instrumental in making known to 
 Englishmen. They may be described as thin 
 boards, six feet or more long, and about five 
 inches wide, curved up and brought to a point in 
 front (like the shoes of a fifteenth-century dude), 
 and cut off square behind. Nansen has told how 
 the Scandinavians are accustomed to the use of 
 them from childhood up, what facility they 
 attain, and the wonderful feats they become able 
 to perform with them. We were concerned to 
 discover how far an untaught Englishman could 
 use them at all, and how long was needed for 
 learning to get about on them. We were entirely 
 
ON SKI 25 
 
 ignorant about them, so that we started with every 
 disadvantage. To begin with, there are all sorts 
 and kinds of ski long and narrow, short and 
 broad, polished and unpolished, grooved below 
 in different ways, attachable to the foot by 
 different systems, made of different sorts and 
 kinds of wood. Of all this we knew nothing. 
 We went into the first shop we saw in Bergen 
 and bought the first pair of ski that were offered 
 to us, with a loop arrangement of cane covered 
 with leather to attach them to the feet. As it 
 turned out our choice was pretty lucky. I shall 
 hereafter devote a chapter to ski, so more need 
 not be said about them in this place. 
 
 With great deliberation, and after many blunders, 
 we inserted our feet into the loops, one loop or 
 wide strap going firmly over the toe, the other 
 passing round the heel, so that the foot can be 
 easily bent and that when it is turned to right or 
 left the ski turns with it. Then we gingerly 
 straightened ourselves up and prepared to shuffle 
 away, each clutching an ice-axe for a third leg. 
 It became immediately apparent that our plateau 
 was not quite flat, for we began to slide downhill. 
 Our legs separated from one another and over we 
 fell. It is easier to fall down than to get up 
 again. Our feet were twisted out of the loops 
 and had to be brought back into place. Endea- 
 vouring to arrange matters, I loosened one of my 
 ski, and off it started on its own account downhill. 
 
26 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 I saw it disappear into the fog, and sent Svensen 
 after it. He was gone half an hour or more, and 
 came back shuffling on it. Then I tried again, 
 this time uphill. 
 
 The first thing to do was to turn round. 
 Of course I trod with one ski on the top of the 
 other, and tumbled over again. When one paid 
 attention to the forward halves of the ski the hind 
 halves got mixed, and vice versa. Uphill, how- 
 ever, we advanced well enough, as long as there 
 was a crust of snow to go upon, but where the ice 
 was blown bare by the wind we slid about help- 
 lessly, for the boards do not bite like skates. Of 
 course on such places ski are seldom needed, the 
 crust of ice being usually strong enough to 
 support the foot. Having reached the foot of the 
 rocks we tried sliding down. After two or three 
 attempts we found our balance ; the process is 
 similar to a standing glissade, only that the motion 
 is quicker. Any good glissader can soon learn to 
 slide down a moderately steep slope on ski. 
 When the snow is uneven, still more when it is of 
 varying textures (soft in one place, slippery in 
 another), new difficulties of balancing arise. 
 After an hour's practice we found our feet well 
 enough, and were assured of being able to cover 
 the ground at a reasonable rate. 
 
 Next we tried the Canadian snowshoes, and 
 found them easy enough to work, but very clumsy 
 compared with the ski. We afterwards learnt that 
 
ASCENT OF DE GEER PEAK 27 
 
 our principal trouble with the latter was caused 
 by the unsuitability of our footgear. We had 
 been told to wear large fur boots of the kind 
 called Finnsku, with hay packed in them. They 
 may be well enough if you know how to pack 
 them, and if they are of the right dimensions. 
 Ours were wrong every way. It was only when 
 we gave them up and took to our ordinary Swiss 
 climbing-boots that we became really comfortable 
 as well as firm on our feet. To this important 
 question of footgear reference will also be made 
 hereafter. 
 
 If the weather had been fine, or the least chance 
 of a view could have been discerned, we should 
 have delayed to repeat the ascent of De Geer Peak. 
 Luck, however, was against us. As De Geer's 
 account of his climb is buried, for English readers, 
 in a Swedish scientific publication,* a translation 
 of it is here inserted : 
 
 "On the morning of August 2, 1882, I set forth from 
 the coast, in company with Lund and the ship's boy, on 
 an expedition up the little valley bordering the north side 
 of Nordenskiold Glacier. The bottom of this valley, with 
 its small hills and little lakes, resembled some unwooded 
 tract of Sweden. . . . Arrived at the head of the valley, 
 we put on the rope and struck across the first side glacier. 
 We had now reached the inland ice and were about 600 
 metres above sea-level. As there was no time for a long 
 
 * K. Vetenskaps Akad. Hand. Bihang, ix. f No. 2, p. 46. 
 
28 UP THE NORDENSKlSLD GLACIER 
 
 expedition over the ice, we decided to climb the mountain 
 near at hand. The only plants found on its slope were 
 some mosses and lichens. Of birds we only saw one 
 fulmar petrel, which came flying over the inland ice. 
 The top of the mountain was covered with old hard- 
 packed snow. Its altitude according to the barometer 
 was over 1200 metres above the sea. It is therefore, after 
 Hornsunds Tind, the highest mountain hitherto measured 
 in Spitsbergen, though there appear to be other moun- 
 tains in its neighbourhood at least as high. 
 
 "The view was remarkably comprehensive. In the 
 south-west was a long stretch of Ice Fjord's south coast. 
 In clear weather it would probably have been possible to 
 see both the mouth of the fjord and Mount Nordenskiold, 
 the high mountain west of Advent Bay which Nathorst 
 afterwards climbed. We had an uninterrupted view over 
 a great part of the broken hill-country west of Klaas Billen 
 Bay, which appears to be devoid of big glaciers. Eastward 
 the inland ice stretched away from the foot of the moun- 
 tain, spreading out its gently undulating surface away to 
 a remote mountain group, situated between N. 69^ E. 
 and N. 101 E., probably identical with the range marked 
 on the map ending westward in Mount Edlund, nearWybe 
 Jans Water. Yet further away appeared a sunlit streak, 
 and beyond that again a line of mountains, certainly very 
 remote, These were quite clear and distinct for a long 
 time till clouds covered them up. Perhaps they lie along 
 the west coast of Barents Land. ... In the north-east 
 the interior of the ice was covered with clouds, so that 
 Mount Chydenius could not be seen, which otherwise 
 would probably have been visible. Most striking 
 was the view to the north-west, in which direction we 
 
VIEW FROM DE GEER PEAK 29 
 
 recognised, on first arriving at the top, a large piece 
 of water, doubtless the West Fjord of Wijde Bay. Its 
 innermost part lay in the direction between N. 39 W. 
 and N. 27^ W., and was only hidden for a short distance 
 by a mountain (the compass deviation is assumed to have 
 been N. 14 W.).* Between us and Wijde Bay no 
 mountains were seen, but only big, apparently level 
 glaciers, filling the bottom of the great valley and 
 seeming to form an ice-divide. It is worth mention that 
 no ice was seen in the blue waters of Wijde Bay, although 
 unbroken sea-ice is reported to have invested at least the 
 western part of Spitsbergen's north coast throughout the 
 whole summer. 
 
 " When we first arrived on the top I took some photo- 
 
 * 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 
 1 200 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. 
 
30 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 graphs and observed a number of angles, besides making 
 some sketches, but little by little our peak became en- 
 veloped in clouds which swept over from the inland ice. 
 We waited four hours on the top, hoping it would clear, 
 but the weather only became thicker and a wind sprang 
 up, so that we were compelled to begin the descent. We 
 followed the south-west ridge, which is certainly the best 
 route for the ascent, in case this point of view should be 
 revisited as a station of the proposed meridian-arc 
 measurement. The return to the tent was made by the 
 afore-mentioned valley." 
 
 From this description it appears that the part of 
 the country we intended to traverse was hidden 
 from De Geer by clouds. We had no information 
 whatever, therefore, as to the lie of the land or 
 the direction in which we should steer. Next 
 morning was somewhat clearer. The Terrier 
 range on the further side of the glacier was dis- 
 closed, as well as some snowy domes inland, 
 apparently very remote, but really not far off. 
 The glacier was perceived to trend back in a 
 direction somewhat east of north, and to widen 
 out greatly. It seemed as though this were a true 
 sheet of inland ice of the Greenland sort. We 
 set forward hopefully in a clear interval, so laying 
 our course as to keep up the glacier's right side. 
 
 During the first hour Garwood's snowshoes 
 gave him great trouble, for he had chosen the 
 Canadian pair. When he had changed them 
 with Nielsen for ski, of which unfortunately 
 
FOG ON THE SNOWFIELD 31 
 
 we had only three pairs with us, and after a series 
 of halts for readjustments, we got fairly under 
 way. It was a steady uphill pull for about three 
 hours. The fog soon came down, denser than 
 ever, and lasted the rest of the day. Only by the 
 resistance of the sledges could the steepness of the 
 slope be inferred. There was absolutely nothing 
 to be seen. It is hard for any one who has not 
 experienced it to conceive the absolute invisibility 
 of everything in the rather dazzling light that 
 pervades a fog upon snow. The effect is thus 
 described by Mr. Peary, writing about Green- 
 land:* 
 
 " Not only was there no object to be seen, but in the 
 entire sphere of vision there was no difference in intensity 
 of light. My feet and snowshoes were sharp and dear 
 as silhouettes, and I was sensible of contact with the 
 snow at every step. Yet, as far as my eyes gave me 
 evidence to the contrary, I was walking upon nothing. 
 The space between my snowshoes was as light as the 
 zenith. The opaque light which filled the sphere of 
 vision might come from below as well as above. A 
 curious mental as well as physical strain resulted from 
 this blindness with wide-open eyes, and sometimes we 
 were obliged to stop and await a change.'' 
 
 Of course, in such a vague illumination there 
 are no shadows. The light comes equally from 
 everywhere. To keep a straight course requires 
 
 * <( My Arctic Journal," London, 1894, p. 232. 
 
 
32 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 continual attention. The compass must be re- 
 ferred to continually. 
 
 When the sledges felt heavier we knew that the 
 slope steepened. About three miles, as we 
 guessed, from camp, they suddenly took a plunge 
 forward on their own account and were with 
 difficulty restrained. We had crossed a water- 
 shed, and the slope was downhill. One sledge 
 knocked Svensen off his feet and sent his ski 
 flying. He captured the right, but the left 
 vanished hissing into the fog. He followed it, 
 and became utterly invisible a few yards away. 
 While we awaited his return, a ghostly sun 
 appeared for a moment, but was swallowed up 
 again. Absolute silence reigned. The air was 
 motionless. We could just see one another, and 
 that was all. At the foot of the hill came a level 
 area, then uphill again, steeper than before. 
 Fortunately for us novices on ski the snow was 
 not in a slippery condition. On the contrary, it 
 tended to adhere to the ski, so that they held the 
 ground well without backsliding. It was deep, 
 soft snow, into which we should have sunk at least 
 to the knee had we been merely walking in boots. 
 As it was, we did not sink into it at all, and could 
 drag the sledges with our full weight. Nielsen 
 was the only miserable one of the party, for he 
 had the Canadian snowshoes. His feet kept 
 slipping out of the straps when he strained upon 
 them in pulling. Moreover, he could not 
 
THIRD CAMP 33 
 
 accustom himself to keep his legs wide enough 
 apart, and so was always tripping up or treading 
 with one shoe on the other. All day the cold was 
 considerable, the air full of frozen vapour which 
 incrusted us over, so that heads, hair, and clothes 
 became a mass of icicles tinkling as we walked. 
 After making about seven miles, chiefly uphill, 
 we camped at a height of some 2500 feet. It was 
 pleasant to feel the shelter of the tents, pleasanter 
 still to get the stove going and gain a drink of 
 water to slake the parching thirst from which all 
 were suffering. 
 
 Early next morning (lyth) the clouds broke for 
 a brief interval, as they have a way of doing about 
 6 A.M., even in the worst weather. Looking back 
 we saw the watershed crossed the previous day, 
 and learnt that we had (unnecessarily) descended 
 into the head of a big valley trending west, that we 
 had crossed this and reascended its northern side 
 to the place of encampment. Had we been able 
 to see ahead, both the descent and the reascent 
 might have been avoided. De Geer Peak was in 
 sight to the south ; westward, as we looked down 
 the valley, a single, or perhaps a double, row of 
 hills intervened between us and Dickson Bay. 
 They were all white with permanent snow. Not 
 a patch of open country was visible there. One 
 of these hills, apparently the Lyktan, was capped 
 with a limestone crown. In the silence and still- 
 ness of the cold morning these mountains, tor all 
 
 c 
 
34 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 their relative littleness, looked singularly dignified. 
 They were so grey and shaggy, creatures of storm 
 and everlasting winter, things utterly remote from 
 all association with man, even as the very moun- 
 tains of the moon. While we were watching them, 
 clouds came up again in the lap of the south-west 
 wind. The milky fog settled down before we 
 started on, and nothing more was seen that day. 
 
 Svensen began to complain of feeling unwell, 
 talked of pains in his inside, of numbness in feet 
 and legs, and so forth. For the matter of that, no 
 one felt particularly bright, the process of coming 
 into condition being always laborious. The only 
 thing to be done was to push on. It was uphill 
 all the time, often up slopes so steep that one 
 sledge had to be left while all four concentrated 
 their efforts on raising the other. Now and then 
 the slope bent away down to the west, showing 
 that we were keeping close along the watershed. 
 The course taken was a little east of north. The 
 work was harder than ever. Hour after hour 
 passed, and yet the hoped-for high plateau was 
 not found. Snow fell heavily and the wind be- 
 came violent. It had its compensations, however, 
 for we could steer by it. The fresh snow was 
 unsuited for ski. It froze on beneath them and 
 balled, an impediment to the shuffling action of 
 the feet. 
 
 As the fresh snow accumulated, the surface of 
 the old snow beneath became so hard that ultim- 
 
FOURTH CAMP 35 
 
 ately ski could be discarded. A final long tug up 
 a very steep slope completed the morning's 
 march. At the top Svensen threw himself down 
 and said he could go no further. He certainly 
 looked ill. His face was ghastly grey, his cheeks 
 sunken, his eyes staring out of his head and blood- 
 shot. The storm was raging furiously, driving the 
 fresh snow along, like a waist-deep stream of 
 opaque white fluid, with a loud hissing noise 
 that mingled in the roar of the wind. It was 
 decided to pitch one of the tents and take 
 shelter in it, while a hot lunch was cooked ; but to 
 carry out the plan was not easy in the teeth of the 
 gale. When the tent was at last set up, Svensen 
 was pushed in and the rest of us crowded after. 
 The sick man began to tremble all over and 
 moaned horribly. He pitied himself in broken 
 accents. There was nothing for it but to pitch 
 the second tent, unpack his fur sleeping-bag and 
 stow him away to warm up. While this was 
 being done I rubbed him hard all over to restore 
 circulation. 
 
 Before we had been halted half an hour tents 
 and sledges were almost buried beneath the 
 drifting snow. The gale was getting worse every 
 minute, making the roofs boom and flap so that 
 we feared they would rip asunder. Meanwhile 
 cooking went forward, and then all slept, awaiting 
 a change of weather. Late in the evening there was 
 no improvement, and Svensen said he was going to 
 
36 UP THE NORDENSKIOLD GLACIER 
 
 die. By morning the wind had dropped, but the 
 fog was yet denser. The sledges were not to be 
 seen. The tents were hidden from one another 
 behind walls and heaps of drifted snow. Nielsen 
 shouted that Svensen was "all broken up/' and 
 could not be moved. I went to see him, and 
 found a miserable-looking object. He said he 
 had swellings in his middle and talked about an 
 old sprain and the cold. His legs were senseless 
 below the knees. Here was a pretty mess, if his 
 story were true ! We had suspicions that fright 
 was a large factor in his trouble ; but if it were 
 not, and we made the man go on, what a respon- 
 sibility would lie upon us ! He was emphatic 
 that he could not stir a yard that day, and that if 
 we insisted on his moving we must carry him, son 
 of Anak that he was. There still remained food 
 for six days, so we could afford to wait twenty- 
 four hours at any rate. Practically we had no 
 option. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 GARWOOD and I, for exercise, started out on ski, 
 not daring to go far in the dense fog, for, except 
 by following up the track, it was impossible to 
 find the camp again once it had passed out of 
 sight. With the surface snow in such feathery 
 condition, a track would be obliterated in two 
 minutes, even by a light wind. Caution, there* 
 fore, was essential. The calm continuing, we 
 indulged in longer excursions, trudging always 
 uphill, and sliding down again with increasing 
 confidence and ease. Assuredly, for the mere 
 movement, ski-glissading is first-rate fun. Taking 
 a longer range uphill than before, we came into 
 a thinner patch of fog, with a quarter-mile reach 
 of vision, perhaps, and the white ghost of a 
 sun aloft. Something suggested that a domed 
 hilltop was close ahead. We pushed on, and 
 rose above the fog. Clear was the atmosphere in 
 all directions below a roof of cloud, white and 
 level, the far-extending floor of fog through 
 which we had just emerged, as through a trap- 
 
38 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 door on to the stage. In front (to the east), and 
 on our left (to the north), gentle snow-slopes 
 rose to skylines seemingly near at hand. We 
 could not but push on. The snow was in perfect 
 condition for sliding, the air delightfully crisp. 
 It was grateful merely to have left the clammy 
 fog behind. The convex curve of the snowfield 
 was cause of the constant retreat of the skyline 
 from our advance ; but at last a distant summit 
 peeped over, then another. Evidently there was 
 a watershed, and from it a view. It developed 
 very slowly, but at length it was all there a 
 downhill slope in front, and then the distance 
 filled with a prospect on which no human eye 
 had ever gazed. It was strictly an eastward view, 
 for in the north the snowfield rose higher, and to 
 the south fog enveloped everything. 
 
 Whether it was the effect of contrast after 
 the blindness of three days, or whether the 
 view was absolutely superb, is hard to say ; it 
 certainly impressed us as a very grand sight. 
 We were standing at the head of a broad 
 snow - white valley, to which a long slope 
 drooped from our feet, the level of the valley- 
 floor being at least 1000 feet below us, or more 
 than 2000 feet above sea-level. On either side 
 the valley was enclosed by faces of rock, bluff- 
 fronts cut out of what was formerly a big plateau, 
 level with our position. A splintered nunatak 
 pierced through the glacier below and formed an 
 
MOUNT CHYDENIUS 39 
 
 effective centre-piece. The glacier itself swept 
 away in its wide, dignified fashion, first east, then 
 gradually round in a great curve to the south- 
 east, on its slow crawl towards Wybe Jans Water. 
 The row of bluffs on the left (north) were seen, 
 one beyond another, stretching away fainter and 
 fainter to the remote distance, where the last may 
 look down upon the east coast. The nearest and 
 highest of these bluffs appears to be the Mount 
 Chydenius of Nordenskiold. Further north and 
 masked by clouds were indications of a range of 
 peaks of bolder form. 
 
 We returned to camp for our cameras and 
 came back with Nielsen, then Garwood set 
 forward down the hill to investigate the Hecla 
 Hook rocks of the nunatak, whilst Nielsen and I 
 went north up the snow-slope. We had not more 
 than a mile to go before reaching the top of the 
 highest snow-dome in the watershed area between 
 the glacier systems draining west to Dickson Bay, 
 south-east to Wybe Jans Water, and south to 
 Klaas Billen Bay. Whether the glacier to the 
 north bent ultimately west to Dickson Bay or 
 round to the head of East Fjord of Wijde Bay 
 could not be determined, for it was soon lost 
 beneath a roof of cloud. The fulmar petrels that 
 came flying over could have told us. The range 
 of hills across the north was now clear. There 
 were indications of a valley between our plateau 
 and them, and of a pass leading over to it from a 
 
40 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 bay of the eastern valley. Unfortunately my 
 photographs of this important view, like all others 
 taken by me on roller film this year, failed. 
 How I now regret not to have carried some good 
 glass plates to this point ! Only blind notes 
 remain. There was a peak of nearly 4000 feet, 
 30 west of north, and another due north about 
 six miles away. Connected with them were 
 many more of smaller dimensions. West of the 
 peak first mentioned the land dropped below the 
 cloud-level, which was from 500 to a 1000 feet 
 beneath our feet. All in the Dickson Bay direc- 
 tion was hidden under piled masses of cloud. 
 
 It was a fascinating and tantalising view. 
 One more day's march would have solved 
 for certain, instead of merely by inference, the 
 whole question of the topography of this icy area. 
 Any one of the peaks ahead would have com- 
 manded views towards Wijde Bay, Hinloopen 
 Strait, and Wybe Jans Water. But with Svensen 
 hors de combat we were helpless. To leave camp 
 for a whole day was impossible, seeing that, in 
 this featureless white wilderness, if fog came on, 
 we should never find it again, whilst, without us, 
 the men left behind could not steer their way to 
 the coast. I thought, however, that it might be 
 possible to return by a new route, descending 
 first down the east valley and then working round 
 to the south ; so we went back to the tents and 
 asked Svensen whether, if we dragged his sledge, 
 
START TO RETURN 41 
 
 he could follow on his own feet homeward. He 
 eagerly jumped at the suggestion ; the stuff was 
 packed and off we started uphill to the point of 
 our first view at the head of the east valley. 
 Svensen shuffled along on his ski well enough, 
 though with a sorry countenance. When he 
 found us going uphill he protested that that 
 could not be the way back and that we were 
 going east instead of south. Arrived at the top 
 and seeing the valley he became mutinous, said if 
 we went down there we should all leave our 
 bones in this horrible land, and generally pro- 
 tested with all his might. Nielsen joined his 
 protests, on the ground that, Svensen being the 
 sort of man he was and apparently ill as 
 well as terrified, we should probably soon find 
 ourselves obliged to drag him along on a sledge, 
 and that, while he could manage to walk, it was 
 best to get him in the direction of the coast, so 
 that, if ultimately he had to be 'carried, it might 
 be over as few miles as possible. In fact, we were 
 cornered ; there was nothing for it but to turn 
 coastward. 
 
 Before doing so we took one more long gaze 
 over the great glacier and away to the remote hills 
 that look down on Wybe Jans Water. One of 
 them must be Mount Edlund, another the White 
 Mountain near Heley's Sound ; but it was 
 impossible to identify them. These were the 
 peaks climbed by Nordenskiold and his party in 
 
42 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 1864. As they were the only people who have 
 ever gazed inland over this same sea of ice, I 
 here insert an abbreviated translation of their 
 account.* 
 
 " On August 21, 1864, the weather became so fine that 
 we returned to land in order to climb Mount Edlund. 
 We landed at the edge of the glacier, which ends without 
 a cliff. Parallel with the shore, at a distance of about a 
 thousand yards, there extends a broad bank of moraine, 
 beyond which comes the glacier itself. Its lowest part 
 consists of a mounded ice-field, here and there split by 
 crevasses, for the most part filled with water. The 
 ascent was easy, and we soon reached the lowest plateau 
 of the mountain. A grass-slope followed, becoming 
 steeper higher up and ending near the upper plateau in a 
 hyperite cliff faced by four-edged columns. This cliff 
 was at least fifty feet high, and vertical ; but the rocks 
 were firm, and could easily be climbed. Thus we 
 reached the top. 
 
 " The view fully came up to our expectations. North- 
 westward, far as the eye could reach, spread endless 
 hills and plains of snow, only broken here and there by 
 occasional mountain peaks standing more or less free. 
 Among these, several remote mountains, probably sur- 
 rounding the southern shore of Wijde Bay, deserve 
 mention. Further round in the north-east a row of 
 
 * "Die Schwedischen Expeditionen nach Spitzbergen und 
 Baren-Eiland ausgefiihrt in den Jahren 1861, 1864, and 1868 
 unter Leitung von O. Torell und A. E. Nordenskiold. Aus dem 
 Schwedischen iibersetzt von L. Passarge." Jena, 1869. 8vo, 
 pp. 470 et seq. 
 
ASCENT OF MOUNT EDLUND 43 
 
 peaks stood up against the horizon. Mount Chydenius 
 was the most northerly and highest of these great moun- 
 tains.* We overlooked the whole of Wybe Jans Water 
 from Whale's Point and Whale's Head to its inmost 
 recess near the White Mountain. Many mountains sur- 
 rounded by ice reared themselves in the west. The 
 view over Hinloopen Strait was hindered by thick mist, 
 which appeared to lie only over this depression and its 
 bordering hills, as so often happens. 
 
 " In order to follow up the mountain ridge extending 
 towards the north-west, and to learn whether an expe- 
 dition over the snow fields involved difficulties, we went 
 from the summit farther into the interior of the land, 
 which lay almost at the same height as the peak. It 
 was quite level and covered with hard, frozen snow, on 
 which walking was as easy as on a floor. This plain of 
 snow appeared to stretch away to Mount Chydenius, so 
 that that peak would be easy to reach for the purposes of 
 a triangulation. We went as far as a distant small hill of 
 snow [apparently the Mount Svanberg of the map] with- 
 out any new experiences, except that fresh peaks kept 
 constantly appearing above the snow ; we accordingly 
 decided to return. 
 
 " The shortest way back to the ship led down a rather 
 steep ice-stream flowing between two hills from the 
 place where we stood to the same broad, level glacier 
 over which we had come in the ascent. The true source 
 of the latter was, in fact, this ice-stream which flows 
 down from the inland ice. We stood for a time at its 
 edge, telescope in hand, discussing whether it would be 
 
 * Mount Chydenius is, however, north-west of Mount Edlund. 
 
44 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 possible to descend by this apparently easy way, or whether 
 we must go round by the longer route, somewhat dan- 
 gerous as it was by reason of the hyperite cliff. A 
 young " Balsfjording," who carried our instruments, and 
 had certainly climbed many a mountain near his home, 
 but probably never been on a glacier, looked at us with 
 wondering eyes when we asked him his opinion. His 
 expression seemed to say, " How can any one be in 
 doubt about so obvious a matter ? " Without a word, he 
 sprang down the ice-slope, theodolite in hand, to our 
 great terror, for we feared that, as usual, the glacier 
 would be broken by crevasses, and difficult to cross. 
 Our anxiety did not last long before we saw him come 
 to a halt, and just in time, for, on coming nearer, we 
 found that a great schrund was immediately before him. 
 We crept to its edge and looked down into the weird, 
 bottomless depth, whose walls were azure-blue cliffs of 
 ice, here and there covered with white icicles like stalac- 
 tites. Lower down everything was lost in a dark-blue 
 gloom. This crevasse stretched almost the whole way 
 across the glacier, so that a long detour had to be made 
 before it could be crossed. Later on we encountered a 
 great number of such crevasses, some of which we 
 turned, others jumped over, others again crossed by ice- 
 bridges. Not till we reached the main stream of the 
 glacier did the crevasses come to an end and the des- 
 cent became quick and easy." 
 
 On returning to the coast they took a boat and 
 rowed to the mouth of Heley's Sound, some three 
 miles north of which they landed in a little bay 
 and set up their tent. Next day, August 22, was 
 
ASCENT OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN 45 
 
 again fine, so they set forth to make the ascent of 
 the neighbouring White Mountain. 
 
 " We wandered first over the great moraine, which the 
 glacier has cast down before itself, then climbed the 
 gently sloping icefield. This proved to be unexpectedly 
 fatiguing and disagreeable work. The surface consisted 
 of thawed and refrozen snow, covered with a crust of 
 faggot-like formation, which frequently broke up under 
 our tread, so that the foot sank into the soft snow 
 beneath and was with difficulty withdrawn through the 
 icecrust, whose sharp edges cut into the boots. The 
 top of the mountain, hidden at first by the humps of the 
 glacier, came into view after an hour's ascent, but was 
 still far away. We had several hours of work over snow 
 of similar character before we reached the summit, a 
 small plateau covered with powdery snow a foot deep 
 upon hard ice. 
 
 "The view from this point is perhaps the finest 
 to be found on Spitsbergen. In the east, about sixty 
 miles away, we saw a high mountain land with two 
 peaks higher than the rest. [This was Wiches Land.] 
 Between it and Spitsbergen lay a sea covered with 
 great, continuous icefloes, obviously impenetrable by a 
 ship. ... In the north-east and north, far as the eye 
 could reach, appeared the hills of North- East Land and 
 Hinloopen Strait, with the strait itself and its islands 
 apparently surrounded by water free of ice. Norden- 
 skiold recognised Mount Lovdn, ascended by him in 
 1 86 1. . . . The interior was likewise displayed before 
 our eyes, a boundless immeasurable waste of snow, out 
 of which here and there some mass of rock jutted forth, 
 
46 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 dark in contrast with the blinding white surroundings. 
 Only further away, west and north-west, were there any 
 connected ranges of mountains. The whole west and 
 north coasts of Wybe Jans Water were in sight, and the 
 northern part of Barents Land, whose extreme point 
 consists of a much crevassed snow-mountain ending 
 steeply in the sea." 
 
 From this interesting digression we must 
 return to our own doings. Facing south-east we 
 kept along the crest of the highest ground and 
 made quick progress, for a gentle slope drooped 
 in our favour and the surface of the snow was 
 in perfect condition for both ski and sledges. 
 Garwood and I shall ever remember the delight 
 of this midnight march. High above the clear 
 air that surrounded us was a dark-blue roof of 
 soft cloud, resting on skyey walls of marvellous 
 colours, with streaks of stratus across them, 
 reflecting the golden sunlight. The sun itself 
 was hidden in the north, but beneath it hung a 
 reticulated web, woven of gold and Tyrian purple, 
 through which shafts of tender light drooped 
 down like eyelashes upon the snow. All around, 
 the neve went sweeping away in gentle curves and 
 domes, greyish-white in some places with purple 
 shadows, bluish-grey in others, here and there 
 strewn with carpets of sunlight. The rocks, too, 
 wherever they appeared, were rich in colour, 
 showing their own ruddy or orange tints enforced 
 
FIFTH CAMP 47 
 
 by the lustrous atmosphere. There was none of 
 the sharp contrast of black and white that strikes 
 a superficial observer in high mountain views. 
 This panorama was a glorious mass of colour, 
 harmonious without rift and rich without 
 monotony. Just at midnight the cloud-roof 
 opened in the north and a flood of sunshine fell 
 around and upon us a veritable transfiguration 
 and thrilling glory which cannot be told. 
 Entranced with beauty, we marched on and on 
 over the wide snowfield, with a sense of boundless 
 space, a feeling of freedom, a joy as in the owner- 
 ship of the whole universe emotions that, in my 
 experience, only arise in the great clean places of 
 the earth, where nothing lives and nothing grows, 
 the great deserts and the wide snowfields. Green 
 country, after such regions, is land soiled by 
 mildew. 
 
 Coming, in about seven miles march, to the 
 point where the slope down to the Nordenskiold 
 Glacier began to steepen, we halted, not from 
 fatigue, but because we were loath to quit the far- 
 seeing uplands and wall ourselves in between a 
 valley's sides. So we pitched the camp about 
 3 A.M., with the doors opening to the south. The 
 eastward views were better displayed than before. 
 We could see Wybe Jans Water with Barents 
 Land beyond, then a series of long rock-faces 
 supporting high-domed, snowy plateaus, stretching 
 round to the Terrier on the left side of the 
 
48 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 Nordenskiold Glacier, whilst De Geer Peak 
 came last, looking from this point like a pyramid 
 with its top storey horizontally stratified. The 
 low sun shone golden on the snowfield, casting 
 blue shadows. All round, near the horizon, the 
 sky was clear below the soft, thin cloud-roof, 
 through which the blueness of the vault of heaven 
 was plainly seen. The remote hills were indigo, 
 patched with orange, gold, and pink. White 
 mists lay in hollows of the snow, motionless. 
 Ivory gulls flew about, projecting their silver 
 plumage against the blue shadows. The air was 
 still. Not a sound broke the perfection of the 
 silence. 
 
 It was afternoon of the i9th when we set 
 forward again over the good, hard snow, the 
 still air seeming warm, and the sun shining softly 
 behind a thin grey roof of cloud. All round was 
 a light-blue frieze of sky with cloud-flakes in lines 
 below, and then the faint blue-and-white hills. In 
 the south the burnished surface of Klaas Billen 
 Bay, shining between purple shores, reflected the 
 sunlight. The beauty of the scene sapped our 
 energies. We wanted to look at it, not to haul 
 sledges. But Svensen said he could do no work, 
 so hauling was the order of our day. Needless to 
 say that many halts were made on every kind 
 of excuse, and every halt was celebrated by the 
 smoke of pipes. Garwood took the opportunity 
 to instruct me in the true art of pipe-loading. 
 
DESCENDING THE GLACIER 49 
 
 " Jam the tobacco in as tight as you can, and then 
 loosen it with a corkscrew " is his formula. I am 
 witness to the labour it cost him in practice, and 
 the tenacity of his adherence to an adopted 
 principle. One advantage of travelling with sled- 
 ges is that you always have comfortable seats 
 ready. It would have been a sin, at least a folly, 
 not to avail ourselves of them. We were neither 
 sinners nor fools after this kind. Yet on the 
 whole good progress was made, for we walked 
 fast and kept going for many hours. The view 
 scarcely changed. That we were coming to lower 
 levels was obvious, but the hills in front seemed 
 no nearer after three hours' marching than at the 
 start. Ahead were a few rocks emerging from 
 the glacier. We thought them close at hand, but 
 they kept their distance. Not for five hours were 
 they left behind. The actual motion, however, 
 was pleasant ; ski and sledges often ran of them- 
 selves. Only Nielsen was miserable with his Can- 
 adian snowshoes, and perforce lagged behind. 
 " This," he said, " is the worst thing ever a man 
 put on his feet miserables ! " His own Lapp 
 shoes, too, gave him no satisfaction. Melted 
 snow found a way through them. " They should 
 have been soaked," he said, " with two parts 
 Stockholm tar and three parts cod-liver oil, boiled 
 together and put on hot. It should be rubbed 
 well in with a rag while it's hot. That will make 
 boots waterproof and keep them soft for three 
 
50 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 months in spite of wettings. That is what our 
 Norwegian fishermen use." Mr. Frederick Jackson, 
 however, tells me that he tried this composition 
 and found it no better than patent dubbin. 
 
 A flat plain followed a long and steady descent. 
 Here, at a level of about 1300 feet, the snow 
 began to be bad. A foot of new snow lay upon 
 the ice. It was in places water-logged, for there 
 were no open crevasses, and now the sun had 
 attained power to set things thawing fast. The 
 blue lakes we saw when coming up existed no 
 more ; drifted snow and frost had abolished 
 them altogether. We were well below our camp- 
 ing place at the foot of Mount De Geer, but on the 
 opposite side of the glacier, approaching its left 
 bank. A wide water-channel came, with a rush- 
 ing torrent in it, flowing over blue ice between 
 banks of snow. It was long before we found an 
 overhanging place where a leap would take a man 
 from bank to bank. Thence a flat but watery 
 area intervened before our goal was reached at 
 the extreme left of the glacier and right below the 
 highest point of the long Terrier ridge, to the 
 summit of which we intended to climb next day. 
 Its cliffs were loud with the sound of countless birds, 
 whose full-throated cries, mingled together and 
 wafted afar as a raucous hum, were audible long 
 before a bird came in sight. From camp we 
 could see them in their thousands, perched in 
 rows upon ledges or soaring about the cliff 
 
CURIOUS ICE FORMATION 51 
 
 fulmars, little auks, and glaucus gulls. Their 
 feathers were scattered all about, whilst numerous 
 tracks showed that this breeding-place was no 
 secret to the foxes the only animals that rove 
 over the icy interior of Spitsbergen. 
 
 Our projected climb was not to be made, for 
 rain came on in the night. We awoke (aoth) to 
 find clouds heavy upon us, and all but the 
 Terrier's foundations obliterated. It was a dis- 
 appointment, but there were compensations, for 
 the immediate neighbourhood proved unex- 
 pectedly interesting. This discovered, we loaded 
 the sledges and sent them down with the men, 
 under orders not to stop till they reached Klaas 
 Billen Bay. Svensen had no longer any excuse 
 for malingering. Yesterday, with every hour's 
 advance, his face became rounder, his back 
 straighter, his movements more active. The fear 
 of destruction was in reality his main disease, 
 aggravated no doubt by cold and exposure to the 
 storm. He acknowledged as much later on. The 
 suggestion that he should hasten down to the bay, 
 whether dragging a sledge or not, seemed nothing 
 less than a reprieve from sentence of death. He 
 set off with alacrity. 
 
 Garwood had observed a curious piece of 
 glacier a few hundred yards away from camp. It 
 was mounded in a peculiar manner, calling for 
 investigation. On approaching it, the mounds 
 were perceived to be arches of ice, barrel vaults 
 
52 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 perfectly regular in form. Their origin was 
 presently self -explained. A wide and deep stream 
 of surface drainage- water habitually flows near 
 the foot of the Terrier. Reaching a level place, 
 the speed of flow is reduced so that the surface 
 becomes frozen over in cold weather. Snow falls 
 upon the ice thus formed, and a roof is made, the 
 remains of which, even at this advanced period of 
 the summer, were two feet thick or more. The 
 glacier in its onward movement is compressed 
 between the Terrier and the De Geer range 
 opposite, and every portion of it feels this com- 
 pression, which, operating on the frozen roof of 
 the river, bends it up into an icy tunnel of regular 
 form. By degrees parts of the tunnel fall in, and 
 thus the detached arches are left. On the King's 
 Bay Glacier we afterwards saw more arches of 
 similar origin. It is to the strength of the arctic 
 winter's frost, rather than to the amount of the 
 annual snowfall, that Spitsbergen glaciers owe 
 their peculiar phenomena, to which the glaciers of 
 high mountain regions in the temperate and 
 tropical parts of the world present no parallels. 
 
 Another and still more remarkable outcome of 
 the same forces presently attracted our attention. 
 We were descending the left side of the glacier 
 below the Terrier and approaching the point at 
 the end of the mountain where a great tributary 
 glacier comes in from the east. The two ice- 
 streams, joining, compress one another laterally, 
 
A BURST LAKE 53 
 
 and cause a bulging or convexity of their surfaces, 
 which only attain a common uniformity of level 
 at a distance of a mile or so. By this means a 
 triangular hollow is formed between the glaciers, 
 and backed against the foot of the intervening 
 hill. A lake collects in this hollow, and is drained 
 by a stream, which, gradually cutting down its 
 bed as the year advances, lowers the level of the 
 lake. When the winter comes, fresh snow falls 
 into and blocks this stream, damming back the 
 waters so that the level of the lake rises. Its 
 surface, of course, freezes ; the ice-covering, with 
 the thawed, refrozen collection of snow upon it, 
 attaining a thickness of four feet and more. On 
 the return of spring, when the snows begin to 
 melt, fresh quantities of water find their way into 
 the lake and raise the heavy ice-sheet. The bed 
 of last year's streams is of course filled up with 
 hard-frozen snow, so that there is no exit for the 
 waters till the cup is full. The moment it begins 
 to overflow the cutting of the channel takes place. 
 The pent-up waters are let loose and evidently 
 operate with extraordinary force, excavating a 
 deep canon out of the glacier. The floating ice 
 acquires a momentum, whereby it not merely gets 
 ripped and broken up, but forced forward on to 
 the dry glacier ahead, great tables of it being 
 turned up on end or piled on one another two or 
 three deep. When most of the water is drawn off 
 and the level of the lake is greatly reduced, the 
 
54 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 convulsion ceases and only the deep canon and 
 the wild ruin of the iceblocks, strewn abroad over 
 half a mile square of the glacier, remain to show 
 what mighty forces have been let loose. 
 
 During the summer we came upon several such 
 burst lakes at the junctions of glaciers. The most 
 striking of them was this one at the extremity 
 of the Terrier, for, owing to the configuration of 
 the ice, it is unusually large and, besides (like 
 the Marjelen See by the Aletsch Glacier), is 
 the receptacle into which many icebergs fall. 
 These icebergs in the winter are frozen in, and 
 tossed out in a wild ruin when the lake 
 bursts. The chaos of strewn iceblocks is visible 
 from far off, but its origin is not then discernible. 
 Masses of ice were heaped against one another to 
 a height of forty feet or even more. The blue 
 canon was so deep and undercut that we could 
 not see to the bottom. It was more than sixty 
 feet in depth. There was something inexpressibly 
 weird in the silence and repose of this icy ruin 
 surviving the wild turmoil of its birth. The 
 catastrophe must have been recent, for the ice- 
 bergs retained the blue colouring and transparency 
 of their submerged parts. We spent a long time 
 clambering about the debris, then hastened 
 forward on our ski and caught up with the 
 sledges. 
 
 A lunch halt was made at the top of a 
 steeper slope, just where crevasses began to be 
 
RETURN TO THE COAST 55 
 
 numerous. By keeping well round to the left 
 their intricacy was easily avoided. Where 
 the descent was made they were relatively small 
 and for the most part wedged with winter snow, 
 strong enough to bear. Leaving the men to 
 guide the sledges down, we gaily shot the slope, 
 crevasses and all, on our ski. Though the ice 
 was rough and much honeycombed, we covered a 
 mile of descent in a few minutes, "everything 
 safely," as our dragoman used to say on the Nile 
 in a gale of wind. At the foot, where the glacier 
 became more level, prosaic marching order had to 
 be resumed. Klaas Billen Bay was nearing, a 
 leaden purple, almost black expanse, dotted over 
 with countless icebergs in the gloomy beclouded 
 evening light. The final descent over the steep 
 moraine was even more difficult than the ascent, 
 for the useful snow-strip had melted away and the 
 stones were more unstable than before. The 
 sledges were seriously knocked about in the 
 process of lowering ; the metal covering of the 
 runners was stripped off and the runners them- 
 selves smashed in two places. They just held 
 together so that we could drag them over the 
 debris fan and the wide bog beyond to where our 
 camp was standing uninjured, with the whaleboat 
 drawn up beside it. 
 
 The general result of this inland excursion was 
 highly satisfactory, notwithstanding our misfortune 
 with Svensen. It enabled us to record in out- 
 
56 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 line the general structure of the area included 
 between Wijde Bay, Dickson Bay, Ice Fjord, 
 Wybe Jans Water, and Hinloopen Strait, Before 
 the recently undertaken exploration of the interior, 
 Spitsbergen was supposed to be covered, like 
 Greenland, with a big icesheet. There were 
 known to be some mountains, but they were 
 described as nunataks islands of rock poked up 
 through the enveloping ice. The nature of the 
 Greenland icesheet is well known ; it buries the 
 whole interior beneath its vast thickness, hiding 
 hills and valleys together within its mass, and 
 flowing down over them on all sides to the sea, 
 toward or into which it sends tongues of ice 
 through every gap. All the glaciers in Greenland 
 are but tongues of a single icesheet. Spitsbergen 
 was supposed to resemble Greenland in this 
 respect. In 1896 we proved this view to be 
 erroneous as to the central portion of the island. 
 The belt of land bounded on the south by Bell 
 Sound and on the north by Ice Fjord, and stretch- 
 ing across from sea to sea, is absolutely devoid of 
 any icesheet. It is a complex of mountains and 
 valleys, amongst which are many glaciers indeed, 
 as there are amidst the mountains of Central 
 Europe, but no continuous covering of ice. Each 
 glacier is a separate unit, having its own catchment 
 area and drainage system. The valleys are boggy 
 and relatively fertile, the hillsides bare of snow in 
 summer up to more than 1000 feet above sea-level. 
 

NO TRUE ICESHEET 57 
 
 There are lines of depression between Ice Fjord 
 and Bell Sound, and between Sassen Bay and the 
 east coast, which are absolutely snow-free through- 
 out the arctic summer. 
 
 We had a suspicion that the area between 
 Foreland Sound and Ice Fjord was not covered 
 by an icesheet, but we still thought it probable 
 that one would be found in the region north-east 
 of Ice Fjord. The result of our present expedition 
 was to prove this not to be the case. We traversed 
 a great deal of glacier and snowfield, but none 
 belonging to a true icesheet. The whole of this 
 region, which I have named Garwood Land, after 
 my excellent companion, is a glaciated mountain 
 and valley system. Each glacier in it is a clearly- 
 marked unit, with its evident watersheds dividing 
 it from its neighbours. North of the Chydenius 
 range, by which Garwood Land is bounded, there 
 does come a true icesheet covering the whole of 
 New Friesland and flowing down to the sea on all 
 sides. North-East Land, too, is buried under an 
 icesheet. These are the only ones in the Spits- 
 bergen archipelago. 
 
 The mountains of Garwood Land are remains 
 of a denuded plateau, resembling those of the 
 Sassendal region. They have been carved out by 
 a denuding agent eating a series of valleys back 
 into the plateau. Readers of my former book, 
 " The First Crossing of Spitsbergen," will remem- 
 ber how many examples of the rapid formation 
 
58 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 and extension of valleys by the eating back of the 
 head-waters are there recorded. The Colorado 
 Berg north of the Sassendal was the best example 
 of the process. That plateau, now bare of ice, is 
 being rapidly cut up into separate hills by the 
 excavation of a series of deep, narrow canons, 
 which will widen and creep further back year by 
 year. Now, the hills of Garwood Land are of a 
 similar type. The wide, deep valley, into the 
 head of which we looked down from our farthest 
 point, sends back into the plateau (or remnant of 
 a plateau) a number of tributary valleys, all of the 
 same deep, gently sloping, steep-headed type. 
 From many indications we concluded that a 
 series of similar valley-heads and cliffs lay to the 
 eastward of our whole route from where we 
 turned back as far as the Terrier. This row of 
 cliffs and bluffs probably flanks the eastern 
 watershed of the Nordenskiold Glacier. The bad 
 weather that prevented our ascent of the Terrier 
 prevented also the verification of this hypothesis. 
 
 If we could assume that Garwood Land was 
 at any time considerably less glacier-covered than 
 it now is, so that its valleys were bog-bottomed 
 like the Sassendal, and its uplands resembled the 
 Colorado Berg, it would be easy to account for 
 the present configuration of the land surface. 
 We should say that it was formed by aqueous 
 denudation, and subsequently covered up by the 
 increase of the ice. It is certain that there has 
 
LAND MODELLING 59 
 
 been a great increase in the ice-supply on the 
 land hereabouts during the last two centuries, for 
 in that time the Negri Glacier has advanced at 
 least fifteen, probably twenty, miles into the sea 
 along a front fifteen miles in width. This fact, 
 however, does not suffice as foundation for so 
 great an assumption. It is rather to the steady 
 elevation of the land that we must look for a 
 solution. Everywhere in Franz Josef Land and 
 Spitsbergen the land is known to be rising. The 
 western belt of the island has been longer 
 exposed to denudation than the east belt. The 
 latter, therefore, has perhaps been later elevated. 
 It came up from the sea as relatively flat ground. 
 As its elevation continued this flat ground was 
 raised into a plateau. At first it did not reach the 
 level of perpetual snow, so that whilst rising it 
 was being cut down into valleys and canons by 
 the action of water, pouring off from the plateau 
 over its edge, and hurrying down a frost-split 
 rock-face. The bed of such a valley has of 
 necessity a very gentle slope. The head is steep, 
 almost a cliff, the whole face of which is being 
 continually stripped off, so that the valley, once 
 begun by a waterfall over the edge of the horizon- 
 tally stratified plateau, penetrates steadily back- 
 ward. 
 
 These valleys once formed, with their steep 
 heads and sides, would maintain themselves even 
 after the remains of the plateau were covered 
 
60 BACK TO KLAAS BILLEN BAY 
 
 with an icesheet and the valleys filled with 
 glaciers. There is no need to predicate for the 
 glaciers any power of erosion ; that is not the 
 way arctic icesheets act, for the upper layers of 
 ice flow over the lower at a far greater speed than 
 is the case in glaciers under lower latitudes. 
 Given an existing cliff, however, with a glacier 
 below it, and the denuding agencies of frost and 
 water at work upon it, that cliff tends to maintain 
 itself and to eat its way back into the mountain 
 mass behind, for its debris fall upon the glacier 
 below and are carried away ; they do not pile 
 themselves up into a protecting slope at the base 
 of the cliff. This eating-back process will go 
 forward with unequal speed according to the 
 varying qualities of the rocks. Bays will thus be 
 formed and will eat back into the plateau, just as 
 the gullies eat back in the Sassendal region, only 
 the bays will tend to grow wider in proportion 
 to their depth in a glaciated country than in a 
 region mainly bare of snow and ice. 
 
 For this process to begin it is necessary that 
 somewhere a rock-face should be exposed to the 
 air. The exposure may be produced by a fault, 
 or by a denuding process begun before the land 
 was much glaciated. We are in no position yet 
 to assert how the process commenced in Gar- 
 wood Land, but that the bays, valleys, and cliffs 
 now existing are being maintained in the manner 
 above described is certain. If the ice were again 
 
CONTRAST WITH GREENLAND 61 
 
 to cover up the Colorado Berg and the hills 
 opposite, and were to flow into and down the 
 Sassendal to Sassen Bay, the aspect of that region 
 would resemble that of Garwood Land to-day. 
 It is only in the case of a country like Greenland, 
 entirely buried under an icecap thousands of feet 
 thick, through which, save along the coast, no 
 rock appears and no cliff is exposed it is only in 
 such a country that the conservative action of ice 
 is complete and the modelling of an elevated 
 land-mass into hills is practically arrested. 
 Hence the scientific importance of distinguishing 
 between a proper icesheet (in the Greenland 
 sense) and a mere assemblage of separate glaciers, 
 however large in volume and intimate in their 
 connexion with one another. An icesheet, or 
 inland-ice, operates in a totally different manner 
 from a series of glaciers. Save in North-East 
 Land and in the part of Spitsbergen called New 
 Friesland, there is no proper icesheet in Spits- 
 bergen, and the phrase "inland-ice" should be 
 expunged from maps and descriptions of regions 
 to which it is not applicable. A chief and no 
 unimportant result of our explorations in the 
 interior of Spitsbergen is this discovery that the 
 parts supposed to be enveloped in an icesheet 
 are in fact merely glacier regions. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 BY WATER TO KINGS BAY 
 
 ON awaking in relative luxury, by the shore of 
 Klaas Billen Bay, late in the afternoon of July 21, 
 we were far from pushing eagerly forward to 
 the labours of the day. It seemed so good to be 
 in a well-stored camp, with no need to husband 
 fuel or count teaspoonfuls of cocoa and sugar or 
 fills of tobacco. Moreover, our wet clothes were 
 drying over a lamp in the men's tent, drying all 
 too thoroughly indeed, for Svensen permitted the 
 soles to be burnt off the stockings. A final visit 
 was made to the glacier-foot to photograph the 
 wonderful cliff. Every prominent feature noticed 
 a week before had fallen away, including a huge 
 cavern that penetrated far into the solid mass of 
 the ice. Returning to camp, Garwood found 
 trilobites in a section of rock by the shore, and 
 they were good excuse for further lingering. 
 Ultimately the boat was hauled into the water, 
 camp struck, and baggage loaded. The men 
 rowed round the spit while we walked across to 
 De Geer's camping-ground. At 10.30 P.M. they 
 
KLAAS BILLEN BAY 63 
 
 took us on board and we made sail for Advent 
 Bay. 
 
 It was a feeble attempt at sailing, for no sooner 
 did we really quit the shore than the last puff of 
 wind died away. A beautiful mist hung low near 
 the calm water, which presently became utterly 
 smooth like a mirror of polished steel. There 
 was just a purple line of shore on either hand 
 dividing the roof of cloud from its reflection. De 
 Geer's signals, built on his trigonometrical points 
 along the level coast, alone broke its uniformity. 
 Far, far away the peaks of the Dead Man appeared 
 in blue and sunshine on the horizon. Without 
 rowing no progress was to be made. At 3 A.M. 
 we were opposite the mouth of Skans Bay. 
 Countless birds were resting all around on the 
 still water puffins in pairs, like lovers always 
 near to one another ; little auks, the babies of the 
 feathery tribe ; fulmar petrels, the strong youths ; 
 terns, the fair maidens ; skuas, the inquisitive old 
 maids ; guillemots, the populace ; glaucous gulls, 
 the police. A flock of fulmars kept us company, 
 flying about and across, then settling on the 
 water ahead to await our slow advance. When 
 we caught up with them, flap and run, off they 
 went again. This game pleased their minds and 
 wings for an hour or more. 
 
 Spitsbergen weather makes for itself an unde- 
 servedly bad reputation. For example, the low 
 roof of cloud that hung above us all this night, 
 
64 BY WATER TO KINGS BAY 
 
 however beautiful the colouring cast by it on the 
 landscape, and it was gorgeous beyond words, 
 certainly produced an effect of gloom. It was 
 long before we discovered how thin was the layer 
 of mist, thin as well as low lying, and that above 
 it all the hills were shining in brilliant sunlight. 
 Through occasional small holes a peak or crest 
 would appear, so incredibly bright as to seem 
 actually aglow with internal fire. Behind us the 
 fog lay upon the water, but ahead the hills across 
 Ice Fjord were clear, and sunshine lured us on. 
 Camp was to be pitched on one of the Goose 
 Islands that we had long decided; the only 
 trouble was that the islands would not approach. 
 We rowed and rowed, but they were coy. One 
 might have sworn that they were drifting away. 
 All of a sudden they changed their minds and 
 neared us so rapidly that, when next we turned 
 round, they were close at hand. They consist of 
 diabase, with surface cut low and polished by ice 
 into gentle undulations. Bog has collected in the 
 hollows and there are a few pools. The sea 
 front all round is a low cliff of dark, shattered 
 rocks. Entering a narrow sound between the 
 two larger islands, we came into an admirable 
 land-locked harbour with an old camping-place 
 close by. Garwood went after eider-ducks for 
 dinner, whilst I saw to the domestic arrangements. 
 The soft ground proved to be a quagmire, so we 
 had to camp in the wet, choosing a spot close by 
 
GOOSE ISLANDS 65 
 
 a well-built fireplace, over which big whalebones 
 had been crossed to carry the pot. The last visitors, 
 a year ago, had kindly left for us a good pile of 
 cut-up firewood ready at hand. No sooner was 
 the fire burning well than a smart breeze sprang 
 up, now that it could not serve for sailing, and 
 blew straight into the fireplace, carrying the 
 smoke directly over to the tents. The same 
 breeze cleared away the clouds and brought 
 sunshine indeed, but was the father of many out- 
 compensating discomforts. 
 
 After a long sleep, breakfast was eaten at 6 P.M. 
 (July 22) in a grey-toned, blustery evening. An 
 hour was devoted to wandering over the islands. 
 They are the home of many birds, especially 
 eiders, which breed there in multitudes, making 
 their nests upon the ground. We filled a large 
 bag with down. Many of the nests were just 
 abandoned and there were lots of young birds 
 about terns, geese, and skuas come on a visit, as 
 well as the common enemy and scavenger, the 
 glaucous, whom the ducks saluted with angry 
 quacking. On shelves of a little diabase cliff I 
 found a bevy of snow-buntings, most charming 
 of arctic dicky-birds. Brilliant yellow lichens 
 made the rocks gaudy with flaming colour. 
 The bogs were the greenest I ever saw, whilst in 
 drier places the flower carpet was as bright as 
 Alice's in Wonderland. On a clear, calm day this 
 would be a lovely spot for dawdling, the islands 
 
 E 
 
66 BY WATER TO KINGS BAY 
 
 being grandly placed for views straight up Klaas 
 Billen and Sassen bays and down Ice Fjord. But 
 the chilly evening was not favourable for contem- 
 plation. I only remember noticing with pleasure 
 the fine, gable-fronted crest of some precipitous 
 limestone peaks which look down on Klaas Billen 
 Bay and prolong into it the characteristic struc- 
 ture of Temple Mountain and its neighbours. 
 
 We sailed away about 7.30 P.M., with a moderate 
 breeze coming out of Sassen Bay. How so little 
 wind could put such a topple on to the sea I could 
 not understand, but so it always is in the inner 
 parts of Ice Fjord. Sitting still in the boat, we 
 were soon miserably chilled down. Conversation 
 flagged. Svensen expressed the general gloom by 
 singing a slow and solemn Norwegian hymn in a 
 deep bass voice. It seemed to cheer him, for 
 he followed it up with a more mundane melody, 
 sung in an uncertain falsetto. Thereupon the 
 Cambridge contingent gave tongue with "The 
 River Cam," which drifted into a topical song, 
 endlessly prolonged, whereof the chorus lingers in 
 my memory yet : 
 
 Sailing away over Sassen Bay, 
 
 Where the waters are always rough, 
 
 If pleasure you take as you shiver and shake, 
 You'll jolly soon have enough. 
 
 In three hours Ice Fjord was crossed and the 
 beginning of the line of cliffs approached, west of 
 
ADVENT POINT 67 
 
 Hyperite Hat. Here the wind failed, just where 
 it always used to fail last year. A long row trans- 
 ferred the heavy boat to the low point outside the 
 mouth of Advent Bay, down which a stiff breeze 
 was hurrying. We sailed across to the farther 
 shore, where I landed to walk to the tourist-hut, 
 leaving Garwood, who is an enthusiastic sailor 
 which I am not to beat round Advent Point to 
 the landing-place. 
 
 The inn contained a merry party, just returned 
 in the Kvik from a visit to Lomme Bay, Wahlen- 
 burg's Bay, and Wijde Bay. They were full of 
 pleasant talk and recent reminiscences of walrus, 
 seal, and reindeer hunting. With their help our 
 camp was soon pitched and our goods landed. 
 More than three hours could not be spared to 
 slumber, for, at 7.30 A.M. on the 23rd, the tourist 
 steamer Lofoten came in from Norway, bringing 
 mails. With her came perfect sunshine and 
 delightful warmth. Not, indeed, that there was 
 any time for mere pleasure. I had a solar obser- 
 vation to take, the baggage to overhaul, and a 
 mail to despatch, whilst all was to be prepared for 
 sailing next day in the Kvik for Kings Bay. There 
 was no hitch. 
 
 In due course Advent Bay was again left 
 behind, and we were on our way down Ice 
 Fjord, once more with a few companions. 
 Among them were the Swedish botanist, Herr 
 Ekstam, and Mr. Baldwin, who was in Greenland 
 
68 BY WATER TO KINGS BAY 
 
 with Lieut. Peary. Ekstam was to be left at 
 Coles Bay, which I was thus enabled to visit. It 
 is a dreary place, with a great extent of bogflat at 
 its head, stretching far inland up a wide, desolate 
 valley. At the end appears to be a pass to Low 
 Sound. There are several similar valleys extend- 
 ing westward, one more uninviting than another. 
 I suppose the bog near the bay is " Coles Park, a 
 good place for venison, well known to Thomas 
 Ayers," as Pelham says, writing in 1631. Coal 
 having in recent years been found in the bay, 
 the name has been confused from Coles to 
 Coal. 
 
 In the smallest hours of the morning of the 
 25th the Kvik entered Foreland Sound. I have 
 traversed this waterway from end to end on four 
 separate occasions without experiencing clear 
 weather. This time there was the usual cloud- 
 roof, but it was high, so that we became in some 
 degree acquainted with the remarkably fine 
 scenery of the passage. The mountain tops were 
 covered, but the glaciers were disclosed, and it is 
 the glaciers that give to the sound its distinctive 
 character. At first they are only on the east coast, 
 a series draining the mountains north of the Dead 
 Man. When these come to an end there follows 
 a dull front of bare slopes as far as the opening of 
 St. John's Bay, the Osborne's Inlet of the early 
 charts. The southern quarter of the Foreland, 
 if the Saddle Mountain at its south cape be 
 
FORELAND SOUND 69 
 
 excepted, consists of a plain, almost absolutely 
 flat, and raised but a few feet above sea-level. 
 It may be called Flatland. I have been told that 
 Russian trappers used to frequent it ; but there 
 does not appear to be any published account 
 whatever of a landing on it. No more featureless 
 or uniform expanse can be conceived. It covers 
 an area of fifty square miles, according to the 
 chart, which, however, is most inaccurate here- 
 abouts. This plain is indicated by nature as the 
 place for laying out a base whenever Spitsbergen 
 shall be used for the measurement of a meridian 
 arc. North of Flatland comes a well-defined 
 mountain group containing fine peaks. It is 
 bounded by a deep depression running from 
 Peter Winter's Bay in a south-west direction, right 
 across the Foreland to the ocean. Peter Winter's 
 Bay is well to the north of St. John's Bay, though 
 marked south of it on the chart. It is indicated 
 correctly enough by Giles and Reps on the remark- 
 able Dutch chart published after 1707 by Gerard 
 van Keulen. There it is named Zeehonde Bay, 
 whilst a secluded anchorage in its north coast, 
 just within the entrance, bears the designation 
 Pieter Winter's Baaytje. North of Peter Winter's 
 and St. John's bays the glaciers follow one another 
 in quick succession on both shores. On the east 
 there are eight of them between St. John's and 
 English bays, whereof the two biggest, at the 
 north and south ends, reach the sea. The 
 
70 BY WATER TO KINGS BAY 
 
 opposite coast of the Foreland is an almost 
 continuous glacier-front backed by a wall of 
 snowy peaks.* The shallow place which stopped 
 Barents and renders the channel impassable, 
 except by small vessels, is off this glacier-front. 
 The Expres used to run over it and bump if she 
 felt inclined. The Kvik was navigated more gin- 
 gerly, so that the passage over the Bar occupied a 
 couple of hours, soundings being diligently taken 
 all the time. 
 
 At the head of English Bay is a great glacier, 
 flowing from the south-east and receiving 
 many tributaries, noted later on. North of it 
 come prominent hills with a wide lowland 
 stretched before them, ending in a flat point 
 named Quade Hook that is, "the Evil Cape." 
 Rounding this cape, we slipped into Kings Bay 
 and steered for its head, across the whole breadth 
 of which was the great front of the Kings Glacier 
 awaiting its first explorers. Clouds hung low 
 down, and there was no distant view inland, not 
 so much indeed as we had seen the previous year. 
 We afterward came to know it well, so for clear- 
 ness' sake I may take the liberty of brushing the 
 clouds away and describing the general arrange- 
 ment of the hills and glaciers, with which the 
 reader is invited to make closer acquaintance in 
 the following pages. 
 
 * These are continued northward by some lower snowy hills 
 ending in the bold Fair Foreland or Birds' Cape. 
 
L 
 
KINGS BAY 71 
 
 Let him, then, return with me to the mouth of 
 the bay, and, standing there, face to the east, with 
 Quade Hook on his right hand. He will be 
 looking straight up the bay. On his left hand 
 will be Mitra Hook, so named from the pointed 
 mitre peak which Scoresby climbed. This exit 
 to the sea between Mitra and Quade hooks is 
 common to both Kings and Cross bays, which 
 are divided from one another by a rectangular 
 mountain mass. Cross Bay is unknown to me. 
 It is said to be one of the finest bays in Spits- 
 bergen. The mountains on either side of it are 
 steep, and magnificent glaciers fall into its head, 
 one of them ending in the finest icecliff in this 
 part of the world. Cross Bay runs in to the 
 north, Kings Bay to the east. Kings Bay is 
 broad at first, with low, flat coasts, beyond which 
 mountains rise to a moderate height. Farther in, 
 the sides approach somewhat, where there is a 
 low cape to the south with Coal Haven and some 
 islands just round the corner, whilst on the north 
 is the protruding hilly mass of Blomstrand's 
 Mound, five or six hundred feet high, with a cove 
 at each end of it (Blomstrand's Harbour to the 
 west, Deer Bay to the east), and in each cove a 
 glacier ending in the sea. It is not till this 
 narrower place has been traversed that the 
 splendour of Kings Bay is fully beheld. Within, 
 the bay is a circle about six miles in diameter, 
 ringed around with an almost continuous series 
 
72 BY WATER TO KINGS BAY 
 
 of glaciers, whereof only those on the south are 
 cut off from the sea by a belt of low-lying 
 ground. Scattered about the inner bay are 
 Loven's Islands, some of which we shall pre- 
 sently visit. On the south the mountains are 
 of bold and pointed form. They are the water- 
 shed between Kings and English bays. On the 
 north, however, is a far more noble group, cul- 
 minating in two peaks that resemble the Dom 
 and Taschhorn of Zermatt. These peaks are 
 small, of course, but they look no whit less fine 
 than their Alpine fellows, and no one acquainted 
 with the Alps would guess them to be smaller 
 than peaks of the great range. From and about 
 these mountains flow magnificent glaciers, whose 
 upper ramifications were too complicated to be 
 sketched on the map from so distant an inspec- 
 tion. The remainder of the view, the whole 
 eastward end of the bay, is occupied by the face 
 of a single mighty glacier, splendid beyond ex- 
 aggeration. It is no smooth expanse of ice, but 
 a splintered and broken torrent, which submerges 
 islands of rock and flows over or about them 
 with tortuous and tormented sweep. A few miles 
 in, this glacier divides, just as Cross and Kings 
 bays divide, the wider constituent being the 
 Crowns Glacier, coming from the north, the 
 other the King's Highway, up which you go to 
 the south-east. Between them is the mountain 
 mass, whereof the famous Three Crowns are the 
 
LANDING IN KINGS BAY 73 
 
 most remarkable, though not the highest peaks. 
 Of course there are plenty of minor tributary 
 glaciers, as the reader will learn soon enough ; 
 one only need be mentioned. It runs into the 
 midst of the Crowns group and divides it in half, 
 separating the Three Crowns on the north from 
 the Pretender and the Two Queens on the south. 
 Up this glacier lies the shortest route across the 
 land from Kings to Ekman bay. If the reader 
 has comprehended so dull a geographical descrip- 
 tion, he can understand our general line of route 
 in exploring this most beautiful and interesting 
 region, which seems to be intended by Nature for 
 the arctic " Playground of Europe." 
 
 Advancing up the bay in the Kvik, we could see 
 little of the wonderful panorama. Clouds hid the 
 Crowns and all but the bases of the nearer hills. 
 As our intention was to make our way inland, we 
 required to be put ashore at the best point for 
 climbing on to the glacier. We headed, therefore, 
 for the middle of the face, where an island of rock 
 rises partly out of the sea, partly through the ice. 
 It soon became apparent that this would not do, 
 for the glacier all round it was broken into such a 
 chaos of seracs as to be absolutely untraversable 
 in any direction. One could only land at the north 
 or south angle of the bay. The north angle 
 might have suited, but the slopes behind it seemed 
 steep to drag sledges up ; we therefore chose the 
 south. I am not sure that we chose right. The 
 
74 BY WATER TO KINGS BAY 
 
 inner part of the bay was dotted over with floating 
 masses of ice fallen from the glacier. They became 
 more numerous the farther we advanced. At last 
 the skipper said he could not venture on, so our 
 boat was lowered and the baggage stowed into it. 
 After bidding adieu to our friends and arranging 
 with the captain to call for us at midnight, August 
 1 1 -i 2, we rowed away. 
 
 It was high tide, so there were no falls taking 
 place from the long glacier-front, which was 
 fortunate, seeing that we had to pass pretty close 
 under it. The cliff was even finer than that of the 
 Nordenskiold Glacier, because it was more 
 splintered. At 5 P.M. we came ashore on the end 
 of a fan of stone and mud debris, laid down by a 
 stream just in front of the left foot of Kings 
 Glacier. The glacier ends on this fan with a 
 curving moraine-covered slope, by which access 
 could be attained to a relatively smooth surface 
 leading inwards in the direction we desired to 
 take. The boat was hauled up, the baggage 
 dragged and carried about a hundred yards inland 
 to the nearest suitable camping-ground. Necessary 
 arrangements occupied the remainder of the day. 
 The sun bursting through the cloud-roof illumin- 
 ated the glacier-front with fine splashes of light, 
 manifesting its blue caverns and silver spires. 
 Thundering falls of ice presently set in and followed 
 one another in rapid succession, now near at hand, 
 now far away. A big iceberg was stranded on 
 
GLACIER SEA-FRONT 75 
 
 the shore just off our point, and a number of 
 fulmars settled down upon it and went to sleep. 
 Amidst such surroundings there was always plenty 
 of entertainment, besides that delightful expecta- 
 tion of the unknown and unforeseen which is said 
 to have bedevilled Ulysses. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 THE next morning (July 26), being beautifully fine, 
 was devoted to an astronomical determination 
 of our position and other preparations for carrying 
 on a survey. A preliminary expedition up the 
 glacier occupied the afternoon. An easy way 
 was found on to the ice, but there luck turned, 
 for, as a matter of fact, we were not really on the 
 Kings Glacier itself, but on the foot of a small 
 tributary flowing round from an enclosed basin 
 on the south and divided from the main glacier 
 by an immense moraine. This moraine would 
 have to be crossed ; we knew enough of dragging 
 sledges over moraines to foresee something of the 
 troubles thus provided. We wandered over the 
 small glacier to the foot of a peak standing in the 
 angle between it and the Highway. Then Gar- 
 wood and Nielsen set off to climb the peak (Mount 
 Nielsen 3120 ft.) by its rotten arete, whilst I with 
 Svensen went on to investigate the moraine and 
 find the best way over it. Returning the first to 
 camp, I sat in the door, watching the wonder of 
 
CLIMB MOUNT NIELSEN 77 
 
 the glacier's terminal cliff, its bold towers, totter- 
 ing pinnacles, and sections of crevasses with fallen 
 blocks wedged into their jaws. Lumps of ice 
 were continually falling. Fortunate enough to be 
 gazing in the right direction, I saw a monster 
 pinnacle come down. First a few fragments were 
 crushed out from right and left near its base ; 
 then the whole tower seemed to sink vertically, 
 smashing up within as it gave way, and finally 
 toppling over and shooting forward into the water, 
 which it dashed aloft. The resulting wave spread 
 and broke around, hurling the floating blocks 
 against one another, and upsetting the balance of 
 many. Its widening undulation could be traced 
 far away by the stately courtesy of the rocking 
 icebergs. The front of the cliff was barred 
 across with sunlight and shadow, throwing into 
 relief this and the other icy pinnacle, above some 
 blue wall or gloomy cavern. Behind the wall the 
 glacier was not smooth, but broken into a tumult 
 of seracs, like the most ruinous icefall in the 
 Alps, as far as the eye could reach. Varying 
 illumination on this splintered area evoked all 
 manner of resemblances for the play of a vagrant 
 imagination. Sometimes the glacier looked like 
 an innumerable multitude of white-robed peni- 
 tents, sometimes like the tented field of a great 
 army, sometimes like a frozen cataract. Its 
 suggestiveness was boundless, its beauty always 
 perfect ; moreover, it was worthily framed. The 
 
78 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 mountains that enclose it are fine in form, with 
 splintered ridges, steep couloirs, and countless 
 high-placed glaciers, caught on ledges or sweeping 
 down to join the great ice-river. 
 
 Garwood returned full of a satisfaction which 
 Nielsen heartily shared. The scramble had been 
 exhilarating, the view superb. There was no ice- 
 sheet visible, only mountains everywhere, with 
 glaciers between. The moraine once passed, our 
 way was open ahead up ice apparently smooth. 
 After supper I set out alone in the opposite 
 direction along the shore, for the purpose of 
 starting the plane-table survey from a well-marked 
 eminence near the foot of the second side-glacier, 
 whose black, terminal slope curves round and up 
 with singular regularity of form. The walk was 
 beautiful, the ice-dappled sea being always close 
 at hand with noble hills beyond. There were 
 plenty of torrents to wade, besides one which had 
 to be jumped. It flows down a gully cut sharply 
 into the dolomite rock. Below the glacier are 
 ice-worn rocks, both rounded and grooved ; but 
 the direction of the grooves is at right-angles to 
 that of the axis of the glacier, so that they appear 
 to have been scratched when the main Kings 
 Glacier extended thus much farther and higher. 
 Returning, I kept close along the margin of the 
 bay. Innumerable fragments of crystal-clear ice, 
 each filled with sunshine, danced in the breaking 
 ripples. The water splashed amongst them, sing- 
 
START UP KINGS GLACIER 79 
 
 ing a cheerful song which was altogether new to 
 me. The cliff-front of the glacier ahead was 
 darkened with shadow, and represented a battle- 
 mented wall with deep portals leading through to 
 a white marble city within. 
 
 On the following day, sun brightly shining and 
 breezes blowing fresh, we loaded up two sledges 
 with food for ten days, and set forth up the 
 King's Highway. A laborious struggle took the 
 sledges past the terminal moraine, but the ice 
 beyond was dotted with frequent stones, so that 
 the runners were generally foul of one or more. 
 The slope was very steep. Reaching a more 
 level place, we encountered ice so humpy that the 
 sledges were always on their noses or their tails. 
 Then came a canon, 50 feet or so deep, and 
 about 20 feet wide. We had to track alongside 
 of it in an undesired direction till a doubtful- 
 looking bridge was found, over which a passage 
 could be risked. More lumpy ice followed till 
 we were level with the foot of Mount Nielsen, 
 where a smoother area was entered on. Here 
 I left the caravan and climbed to the top of a 
 hump on the arete of the peak to continue the 
 survey. My solitary industry was enlivened by 
 the neighbourhood of countless nesting birds, 
 snow buntings, little auks, and guillemots, whose 
 home is in the cliffs. Thus far the big moraine 
 was close by on our left hand, mountains on our 
 right ; the level stretch of ice led between the 
 
80 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 two to the meeting of moraine and mountain at 
 the entrance of the next side valley beyond 
 Mount Nielsen. Here the stone-strip had to be 
 crossed. I came up with the others just as the 
 crossing began. We thought the moraine belt at 
 this point would be but a few yards in width. 
 It was more than half a mile. We only found 
 that out after unloading the sledges and taking 
 every man his burden. They were carried over, 
 a return made for more, the process repeated, 
 and so on for two whole hours a heartbreaking 
 experience. It was a hilly moraine or set of 
 moraines, with two main ascents and descents 
 besides several minor undulations. Footing was, 
 of course, on loose stones only. In such places 
 laden men slip about, bark their shins, twist their 
 ankles, and lose their tempers. Beyond the 
 stones came humpy ice again, ridged into short, 
 steep undulations. A sledge required vigorous 
 hoisting over each of them, the distance from 
 trough to trough being about five yards, and the 
 ridges transverse to our line of route. " On every 
 hump," said Nielsen, "a sledge capsizes." Cer- 
 tainly one sledge or the other was generally 
 rolling over on its back. After six hours of hard 
 work we agreed to camp (460 feet) " the hardest 
 day's work I've done in a long time," was Niel- 
 sen's comment, and we believed him, for he put 
 his back into it with hearty goodwill. Only when 
 the tents were pitched had we leisure to enjoy the 
 
HONEYCOMB ICE 81 
 
 warm sunshine and the exhilarating, absolutely 
 calm air. Out on the ice we could sit in our 
 shirt-sleeves without being chilled. All around 
 spread the great glacier in its beauty; the sky 
 overhead was blue ; the bay reflected the sun- 
 shine ; fleeces of mist adorned the hilltops. In 
 that perfect hour we craved for nothing save the 
 company of absent friends. 
 
 The next day (July 28) we made good progress, 
 ascending 720 feet and covering a long distance. 
 None of it was easy-going ; in fact, when you have 
 sledges to drag there is no easy going except on 
 the flat. Every stage of a glacier has its own 
 troubles. First comes the steep snout and its 
 moraine, then humpy ice and open crevasses, next 
 honeycomb ice and water-holes, which gradually 
 pass (in fine melting weather) into glacier 
 covered by waterlogged snow. We began the 
 day with honeycomb ice and water-holes. The 
 honeycomb ice on the Nordenskiold Glacier made 
 rather good travelling ; it was otherwise on the 
 King's Highway. Several fine days had flooded 
 the surface with water, so that, where crevasses 
 ceased and the water had no downward outlet, it 
 was obliged to trickle about, forming pools, rills, 
 and rivers, all in different ways perplexing to 
 the traveller. The cells of the honeycomb ice 
 were thus full of water, and, as they gave way 
 under the pressure of a tread, the foot crunched 
 through into water at every step. By slow degrees 
 
82 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 the honeycomb was replaced by sodden snow, 
 which grew steadily deeper as we advanced to 
 higher levels. Here the whole surface shone in the 
 sunlight, for the water oozed about in pools and 
 sluggish streams, forming square miles of slush. 
 There were brief intervals of dryness where the 
 surface rose in some perceptible slope, but they 
 were short, the almost flat waterlogged areas 
 covered the larger part of the region to be 
 traversed. If the march was uncomfortable and 
 toilsome, each could laugh at the antics of the 
 others. We steered a devious route, seeking to 
 follow the white patches and to avoid the glassy 
 blue areas where water actually came to the 
 surface. But all that looked white was not solid. 
 You would see the leader shuffling gingerly for- 
 ward on his ski, trying to pretend that he was a 
 mere bubble of lightness. Suddenly, through he 
 would go up to the knee, the points of his ski 
 would catch in the depths and a mighty flounder- 
 ing ensue. The sledges got into similar fixes, 
 and often added to the confusion by rolling over 
 most inopportunely. The leading sledge usually 
 served to indicate a way to be avoided, so, before 
 very long, the two parties wandered asunder and 
 enjoyed one another's struggles and perplexities 
 from a distance. 
 
 It is obvious that Nature must provide some sort 
 of a drainage system for such a quantity of water. 
 The bogs and pools leak into one another and by 
 
WATERLOGGED SNOWFIELD 83 
 
 degrees cut channels with ill-defined banks of 
 snow, along which the current slowly crawls. By 
 union of such streams strong-flowing torrents 
 are formed ; these make deep cuttings into the 
 glacier and unite into a trunk river, deep, swift, 
 and many yards wide. Every uncrevassed side 
 glacier above the snowline pours out a similar 
 river on to the surface of the main glacier, and 
 these rivers in their turns presently join the trunk 
 stream. Thus, whatever route you take, whether 
 you keep near the trunk stream or far from it, the 
 side streams have to be crossed. The crossing of 
 them is often a tough business. Their icebanks 
 are about twelve feet high and usually vertical ; 
 their volume of water is too considerable to be 
 waded, seeing that their beds are of smooth, 
 slippery, blue ice, on which footing cannot be 
 maintained for a moment. They are seldom less 
 than four yards wide. The blue strip with the 
 clear water between the white walls is always a 
 lovely sight, but to a traveller quite as tantalising. 
 A crossing can only be accomplished where the 
 water has chanced to undercut one of the banks 
 and at the same time to leave a level place beside 
 it at the foot of the other bank. You can then 
 jump over with some hope of gaining a footing 
 where you land. The sledges have to follow with 
 a perilous bump. Rarely you may find a snow- 
 bridge. In search of possible crossings we had to 
 travel alongside of these streams, time and again, far 
 
84 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 out of our line of route, whilst, to make matters 
 worse, it happened that we were on the wrong side 
 of the trunk river ; thus that also had to be 
 crossed, a problem apparently insoluble, till a 
 great and well-blessed bridge was found just at the 
 end of the day's march. 
 
 Nielsen worked like a horse all day long, 
 his full weight thrown forward and his body 
 inclined at a surprising angle. Svensen, by the 
 gestures of his arms and the sorry expression of 
 his countenance, looked as if he were labouring 
 exceedingly, but of his towering frame the vertical 
 was the customary attitude, and if the one of us 
 who was sharing his sledge left off pulling for 
 a moment the sledge mysteriously stuck fast. 
 There were, indeed, signs of a return of Svensen's 
 malady ; but it was explained to him that, regard 
 being had to the comfortable warmth of the 
 weather and absence of wind, his health was not 
 to be deranged, and that, if it should happen that 
 he could not go on with us, doing his full share 
 of work, he would have to find his way back to 
 the coast alone. Thenceforward he throve ex- 
 ceedingly, and only penalised us by " sugaring " 
 when not closely watched. 
 
 The character of the scenery changed consider- 
 ably during the progress of the march. Our 
 first camp looked up both the Crowns and High- 
 way glaciers and was opposite the big nunatak 
 which divides them. It is a true nunatak, or hill- 
 
HIGHWAY SNOWFIELD 85 
 
 top rising from the bed of the glacier, not an 
 entire mountain surrounded by different glaciers. 
 At one time it must have been buried under ice, 
 for all its top seems to be moutonnised. The 
 Crowns and Queens groups were both well seen 
 from the same camp, or would have been but for 
 a few clouds. As we advanced, the Crowns dis- 
 appeared behind the Pretender and Queens, and 
 we came under the rounded and bare south slopes 
 of these a dull prospect. But new objects of 
 interest were appearing in the other direction, 
 where the Highway Glacier widened out and 
 branched off into white bays and tributaries, 
 separated from one another by peaks of striking 
 and precipitous form, finely grouped. When the 
 Three Crowns were finally hidden, there opened 
 out on the left side of the Highway a broad valley, 
 south-westward, that bent round to the west and 
 soon reached a wide snow pass, beyond which, 
 still curving round, it led down to the glacier 
 emptying into the head of English Bay. 
 
 All day long we were rounding away from the 
 purple fjord and visibly leaving it behind, though 
 the distance to the watershed in front did not 
 perceptibly diminish. The weather continued 
 fine, though not clear ; the sun peeped through 
 the mottled sky from time to time, but fogs rolled 
 about like big snowballs on the higher neves. 
 Camp was pitched (1180 feet) in the midst of the 
 widest part of the glacier about a mile below the 
 
86 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 point where it bifurcates, each branch leading up to 
 a wide snow pass of its own. The north branch 
 continues the direction of the lower part of the 
 glacier, so we decided to go to it. A widening 
 wedge of peaks divides the cols, and coming down 
 to a sharp arete buries itself beneath the ice at 
 Junction Point (named because it must be referred 
 to again in the course of this narrative). 
 
 The 29th was a glorious day. Resolutions were 
 made that we would march on to the watershed, 
 whatever its distance. It is as easy to change 
 these resolves in the afternoon as to make them 
 in the morning. The pools of water were now 
 left behind, but the snow on the surface of the 
 ice was still sodden and slushy. In the first three- 
 quarters of an hour we rose 120 feet, and reached 
 the end of the ridge at Junction Point. Rocks 
 were here disclosed, so Garwood went off geo- 
 logising. The rest of us plunged into an island 
 of fog, and hauled on up a steep slope, where the 
 snow became good, and thenceforward remained 
 in perfect condition for ski at that and all higher 
 levels. Without ski it would have been impos- 
 sible to do much, for we should have sunk up to, 
 or above, the knee in snow, over which, with 
 them, we slid in luxury. Above this slope the fog 
 ended, and a wide, very gently sloping plain of 
 snow followed, stretching afar on all sides. This 
 is the highest basin and gathering ground of the 
 glacier. It is almost level with the passes that 
 
HIGHWAY SNOWFIELD 87 
 
 divide the mountains on the north. If we had 
 but known that the same is true of the neve on 
 the other side of those passes, we might have 
 saved ourselves the long round of a few days 
 later. Now that there was no water to trouble 
 us, we suffered acutely from thirst, for the day 
 was quite hot and the sun burned fiercely. We 
 peeled off our garments one by one and rejoiced 
 in an unwonted freedom. 
 
 The mountains bordering the King's Highway 
 average somewhat over 3000 feet in height. As 
 the level of the glacier rises, the lower slopes are 
 more deeply covered and the visible remainder of 
 the peaks comes to be not much above 1000 feet. 
 They appear, moreover, to stand wider apart from 
 one another, and the glacier, filling the valley 
 more deeply, becomes itself considerably wider. 
 Nevertheless, such is the fine form of the moun- 
 tains that they still appear large, especially to an 
 eye trained in greater ranges. Being themselves 
 magnified, they proportionally magnify the aspect 
 of the glacial expanse, which pretends to be of 
 quite enormous extent a spotless desert of purest 
 white. The views on all sides were of entrancing 
 beauty, especially the view back down the blue 
 vista of Kings Bay. The broad white col ahead 
 seemed for hours little elevated above us. There 
 were far, coy, tantalising peaks over and beyond. 
 From the col itself rose a small mound, perhaps 
 500 feet high, by the foot of which it was our 
 
88 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 intention to camp, but hour passed after hour, 
 and it never seemed nearer. 
 
 Busied with the survey, perforce I lagged 
 behind and was alone in the midst of a world of 
 whiteness. A lengthening shadow was my sole 
 moving companion, save when some stray fulmar 
 petrel came whizzing by, en route from Kings Bay 
 to Ice Fjord. The tracks of foxes were crossed 
 not infrequently, but no fox did I actually see. 
 At 9 P.M. the col was apparently as far off as ever, 
 and Nielsen had done as much work as a man 
 could be expected to do in a day. Svensen didn't 
 count, as he always put on the aspect of a moribund 
 person. He expressed a full agreement with 
 Nielsen's ejaculation, "We'll have to have plenty 
 of soup for this." Ultimately we gave up till the 
 morrow the resolved pursuit of the pass and 
 camped at a height of 2170 feet, having risen 
 about 1000 feet during the day. The first thing 
 done was to melt snow for a debauch. Deep 
 were our potions ; the insipid draught tasted for 
 once like divine nectar. The sun continued his 
 bright shining and the tents were warm within. 
 We lay on our bags, enjoying the simple beauty 
 of the view seen through the open door. Each 
 deep-trodden footprint in front was a cup filled 
 with a shadow of purest blue, pale like the sky. 
 A white expanse followed, slightly mottled with 
 blue in the foreground and sparkling as with 
 diamonds ; it stretched away for about five miles 
 
APPROACHING THE PASS 89 
 
 to the great blue shadow, which the wall of rocks 
 and ridge of snow in the north cast wide from the 
 low-hanging sun. There was not a sound, not a 
 breath of moving air ; no bird came by ; not an 
 insect hummed. It was an hour of absolute still- 
 ness and perfect repose. 
 
 We tried to sleep, but in the bright sunshine no 
 ghost of slumber would consent to visit the camp, 
 till clouds at last came up which barred snow and 
 sky across in grey and silver, robbing the shadows 
 of their blue, and lowering the temperature to a 
 comfortable degree. Then sleep descended, and 
 coming late lingered with us all too long, so that 
 it was noon of the 3oth before we were again 
 on the way. The snow was now soft and the 
 apparent level proved, by the evidence of the 
 sledges, to be a steady uphill slope. For an hour 
 the pass kept its distance ; then, on a sudden, it 
 was near. Excitement rose. What should we 
 see ? What was beyond ? We knew that the 
 slope on the other side must be toward Ice Fjord, 
 but that was all. The east coast of what I have 
 named King James Land* is well seen from 
 
 * The first English explorers of Spitsbergen, Hudson and 
 other servants of the Moscovy Company, formally took posses- 
 sion 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. 
 
90 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 Advent Bay and other parts of Ice Fjord. It 
 consists of the fronts of a series of big glaciers 
 and of the ends of the mountain ranges dividing 
 them. The glaciers and ranges are approximately 
 parallel to one another, running from north-west 
 to south-east. We therefore thought it probable 
 that we should look down some glacier from the 
 col, but doubted which. Arrived on the pass 
 (2500 feet), there, in fact, was a glacier directly 
 continuing the King's Highway down to the 
 eastern waters, for it apparently ended in the 
 fjord. Far off, and still in the same line, was the 
 purple recess of Advent Bay. A beautiful row of 
 peaks, pleasantly varied in form (for there were 
 needles and snowy domes and pyramids among 
 them), lined the glacier on either side, the last on 
 both hands being bolder and more massive towers 
 of rock than the rest. We afterward easily 
 identified these peaks from Advent Bay, whence 
 also on a clear morning I confirmed our observa- 
 tions by looking straight up this same glacier and 
 recognising Highway Pass. 
 
 Camp was pitched on the pass and preparations 
 made for a day's exploring in the neighbourhood. 
 It was warm, the temperature in the tents being 
 59 Fahr., whilst the direct rays of sunshine really 
 scorched. The condition of the snow may be 
 imagined. Without ski, progress in any direction 
 would have involved intolerable discomfort and 
 labour. Close at hand on the north was a hill 
 
HIGHWAY PASS 91 
 
 about 500 feet high, to which we gave the name 
 Highway Dome. It was the obvious point to be 
 ascended for a panoramic view. There was a 
 bergschrund at the foot of it, and then a long snow 
 slope up which we had to zigzag. Unfortunately 
 by the time the summit had been gained the sun 
 was obscured by clouds, which were boiling in 
 the north as though for a thunderstorm. The 
 hills of known position near Advent Bay were 
 likewise obscured by cloud, so that my three- 
 legged theodolite had made this ascent to little 
 purpose, but the panorama was clear in the main 
 and the colouring all the richer for the cloud- 
 roof. 
 
 We were standing at an altitude of about 3000 
 feet,* surrounded by peaks of similar, or rather 
 greater, elevation. Let no one fancy that because 
 these heights are insignificant there was any corre- 
 sponding insignificance in the view. The effect 
 produced by mountains depends not upon their 
 altitude, but upon their form, colour, and grouping. 
 There are no features in a mountain, standing 
 wholly above the snowline, whereby its absolute 
 magnitude can be estimated by mere inspection. 
 You may judge of its relative magnitude compared 
 with its neighbours, but of its absolute magni- 
 tude you can only judge when you have acquired 
 
 * 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. 
 
92 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 experience of the district. A native of the Hima- 
 layas coming to the Alps would see them double 
 their true size. A Swiss would halve the Hima- 
 layas. A slope of stone debris is the best guide 
 to eye measurement, because stones break up into 
 small fragments everywhere ; but in these high 
 arctic regions, far within the glaciers, there are 
 no such slopes. It is only the multitude of 
 mountains seen in any extended panorama of 
 Spitsbergen that suggests the smallness of the 
 individual peaks ; but this very multitude is itself 
 impressive. To the south, for instance, we looked 
 across at least five parallel ridges ; and there were 
 indications of others beyond, a very tumult and 
 throng of hills, none of which could we identify. 
 The opposite direction interested us more at the 
 moment, for our idea was that we might find there a 
 route round to the Three Crowns. There was, in 
 fact, a large neve basin, but so intricately crevassed 
 as to be practically impassable in fog. One way was 
 discoverable through the labyrinth, and apparently 
 one only. The weather looked so threatening that 
 we incontinently decided against making the 
 attempt. This neve was one of several that fed 
 the next big glacier to the north, which empties 
 into the sea at Ekman Bay. Beyond it came a 
 chaos of peaks ; we learned to know them by 
 sight well enough a few days later. The waters 
 of Ekman Bay were in view, and the depression 
 containing Dickson Bay could be traced, then the 
 
HIGHWAY DOME 93 
 
 wall-fronted mass of the Thordsen Peninsula, and, 
 far off, the high snow plateau, where we had 
 wandered in the fog a few days before. Looking 
 back the way we had come, we saw Kings Bay 
 apparently very far off, much farther than Ice 
 Fjord, which seemed, comparatively speaking, to 
 lie at our feet. Differences of atmospheric trans- 
 parency had some share in producing this effect. 
 
 A cold wind diminished our pleasure on the 
 summit and shortened our stay. The descent 
 presented problems to inexperienced skisters. 
 The snow-slope dropped vertically from the 
 summit crest for a yard or so, and was then very 
 steep. Svensen, an expert on ski, tried to shoot 
 down, but came a cropper before reaching the 
 gentler incline. We, of course, fell headlong in 
 hopeless fashion, and all attempts at glissading 
 failed. Where the slope began to ease off a little 
 a start was finally made, and a long curving shoot 
 of about a mile carried us with exhilarating swift- 
 ness down to camp. Later on in the day the 
 ascent was repeated, but with no useful result, for 
 clouds still masked the important points of refer- 
 ence in the panorama. Excursions were also 
 made in other directions, and a plan decided on 
 for the morrow. Clouds kept forming, but only 
 to fade again ; by evening the weather was satis- 
 factorily re-established. The play of shadow on 
 the wide glacial expanse was inexpressibly lovely. 
 Under full sunshine any very large neve appears a 
 
94 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 
 
 mere uniform sheet of white, admirable for bril- 
 liuncy but lacking in detail. When shadows 
 come, the undulation of the surface is disclosed 
 by long curves infinitely delicate and fine in form. 
 Of course, however bright the sun, there must 
 really be a difference in the intensity of the light 
 reflected at different points owing to variations of 
 slope, but this difference is slight, and the eye, 
 astonished by the brilliancy of sunshine upon 
 snow, is not conscious of it. But when a cloud 
 comes over the sun and casts a broad shadow on 
 the neve, the varying illumination of the bending 
 field becomes readily perceptible, though still 
 faint and of marvellous delicacy, and a new order 
 of beauty is revealed. He would be but a starved 
 lover of mountain beauty whose eyes should 
 desire to behold the regions of snow always 
 beneath a cloudless heaven. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 OSBORNE GLACIER AND 
 
 PRETENDER PASS 
 
 EXPLORERS in most parts of the world are able 
 to sketch general maps of large areas, which they 
 may have traversed only along a single line of 
 route. Undulating country intersected by promi- 
 nent waterways and rising at considerable inter- 
 vals to prominent altitudes can be mapped in a 
 sketchy fashion by the rapidest traveller, if 
 skilled. A few compass bearings fix the position 
 of prominent points ; positions, astronomically 
 determined from time to time as opportunity 
 arises, clamp the whole together and enable it to 
 be adjusted on the proper part of the globe ; whilst, 
 as for details, who cares about them in a new 
 country ? The mountain explorer, however, that 
 person most unpopular with geographers, is faced 
 by topographical problems of a far more compli- 
 cated character. His routes always lie along 
 valleys, whose sides cut off the distant view and 
 whose bends often prevent him from looking 
 either ahead or back. When he climbs a peak, 
 
96 OSBORNE GLACIER 
 
 assuming him to have a clear view, which is rare, 
 he beholds a wide panorama, it is true, but, save 
 in the foreground, it consists of a throng of 
 peaks, whose summits alone are visible over 
 intervening ridges. If, following tradition, he 
 laboriously fixes the position of some of them, it 
 is lost labour, for the mere dotting upon a map 
 of the points of a lot of peaks tells a geographer 
 nothing. What he wants to know is the number 
 and direction of ranges, the position of water- 
 sheds, the relation of rivers to the original earth- 
 crinkles which determined their direction and in 
 turn are so remarkably modified by them. To 
 make merely a sketch-map of a considerable moun- 
 tain area thus involves an amount of travel 
 within it beyond all comparison greater than that 
 entailed by the exploration of open country. The 
 smaller the scale of the mountains, and the closer 
 they are packed together, the more frequently 
 must the area be traversed in different directions 
 before a sketch-map of it can be made. 
 
 King James Land is an example of a region 
 excessively difficult to map. It is covered by a 
 wonderful multitude of mountains, which may be 
 described in a general way as planted in ranges 
 running from north-west to south-east. Of these 
 there are about six principal ones between the 
 King's Highway and the Dead Man, and quantities 
 more to the north. The old-fashioned geographer 
 would have been content to draw parallel cater- 
 
HIGHWAY PASS 97 
 
 pillars on his map and so fill it up. But, as a 
 matter of fact, there are throngs of subsidiary 
 ranges and crossing hollows, so that the glacier, 
 flowing down one valley, robs from its neighbour 
 the snow accumulated in its upper reservoir ; and 
 it is exactly in these phenomena that the geo- 
 graphical interest of the region consists, for they 
 show how ice-denudation works, and the kind of 
 modelling effect which ice can produce on a land 
 surface, an effect totally different in kind from 
 that fabled by home-staying geologists, with their 
 imagined excavating ice-streams. 
 
 Thus far we had only made acquaintance with 
 one glacier-valley cutting across the island from 
 Kings Bay to Ice Fjord. We determined to look 
 into another, to the south, before turning north- 
 ward to the Crowns group. On July 31 we 
 accordingly broke up camp, loaded the sledges, 
 and bade the men set off, down the way we had 
 come, as far as Junction Point, where they were 
 to await our arrival. Garwood and I, in the 
 meantime, were to cross the range of hills at the 
 south of our camp, descend into the next valley, 
 and return over the pass at its head, which must 
 of course give access to the snowfield of the 
 southern branch of Highway Glacier. Descend- 
 ing that we should come to Junction Point. 
 
 It was another brilliant day, and so warm that 
 the snow was softened to an unusual depth. 
 During or immediately after frost the surface of 
 
 G 
 
98 OSBORNE GLACIER 
 
 neve sparkles in sunlight as though sprinkled with 
 countless diamonds ; but on warm days there are 
 no diamonds, but only drops of water, the surface 
 crystals being melted. The forms and surfaces of 
 snow are thereby softened, and this softening effect 
 is recognisable even from great distances. At start- 
 ing, the view over Ice Fjord was clearer than ever, 
 and we could distinguish Bunting Bluff, Fox Peak, 
 and other scenes of last year's toils and delights. 
 The work immediately in hand was to ascend a long 
 snowslope, rising from Highway Pass to a col 
 about 200 feet higher in the range to the south 
 a broad snow-saddle at the foot of a very fine 
 peak, the ascent of which from this side would be 
 dangerous, for its whole face is swept by ice- 
 avalanches. Somewhere in the rocks of this peak 
 are the nesting-places of many birds, the chorus 
 of whose voices was heard as a faint hum. The 
 new pass looked down upon the head of a large 
 glacier, and across it to an innumerable multitude 
 of peaks, all shining in the blaze of midday. At 
 our feet was a secluded bay of this glacier. A 
 splendid ski-glissade landed us on its snowy floor, 
 and we were soon out on the main glacier, which 
 swept down from the pass we were to cross next. 
 Halting at a convenient spot, we took stock of the 
 view. It was beautiful, of course every view is 
 beautiful in King James Land ; but its interest 
 made me forget its beauty for a time. We 
 expected to find in this trough a glacier parallel 
 
VIEW DOWN OSBORNE GLACIER 99 
 
 to the Highway, and we did find one, and a large 
 one too, larger than the Highway, because fed by 
 several tributaries from the south ; but to our 
 surprise this glacier did not flow in the expected 
 direction, but due south for many miles, and 
 instead of ending in Ice Fjord, or on its shore, 
 ran up against a big mass of mountains and, 
 bending round to the right or south-west, dis- 
 appeared from view. At the angle it received a 
 wide tributary from the north-east. This great 
 glacier, in fact, empties itself into the head of St. 
 John's Bay. As that bay was originally named 
 Osborne's Inlet, after an early whaling skipper, 
 we gave his name to this glacier. Garwood, I 
 believe, explains the twist of the mountains which 
 cause this deflection of the glacier as the result of 
 a fault dying out ; but, lest I should unwillingly 
 misrepresent his conclusions, I leave him to 
 describe them himself. The mountains near at 
 hand to the south were of beautiful forms, re- 
 minding us of well-known Swiss peaks, Weiss- 
 horns, Gabelhorns, and so forth. There was 
 much aqueous vapour in the air, reducing its 
 transparency and adding to the effects of distance. 
 The mottled sky cast a decorative patchwork of 
 shadows on the snow. Skeins of cloud were 
 forming, and in the north the weather was again 
 threatening dark and evil things. 
 
 On us, however, toiling up the long, long slopes 
 to the pass, coy as are all the wide white passes in 
 
100 OSBORNE GLACIER 
 
 this land, the sun shone with painful fierceness. 
 It burned as it sometimes does on the high Alps, 
 so that we soon began to suffer from sun-headaches 
 and parching thirst. Nowhere was there a drop 
 of water to be squeezed from the apparently 
 sodden snow. Having survey instruments and 
 cameras to carry, we were sparely provided with 
 food. Hunger came to weaken us and double 
 the apparent length of the way. At last we were 
 on the col, but the downward slope was very 
 gentle and the snow now became sticky, so that 
 the ski would not slide. We bore away to the 
 right in search of a steeper incline and struck 
 blue ice covered with mere slush that even the 
 ski sank into. There were dry patches of it, too 
 slippery to stand on ; it was a mere alternation 
 of evils. Sometimes we stuck fast and sometimes 
 fell heavily. What was looked forward to as an 
 easy and delightful excursion became a most 
 laborious day's work. "This is your picnic," 
 cried Garwood to me as he fell more than usually 
 hard, " I hope you like it." But all things come 
 to an end, and so did this march. Junction Point 
 appeared in sight, with a lake-basin between the 
 branch glaciers where they join, a basin similar to 
 that at the foot of the Terrier, and, like it, recently 
 drained. The heavy ice, formed on its surface in 
 the winter, had been carried all over the neigh- 
 bourhood by the momentum of the escaping 
 water, and now lay spread about, high and dry. 
 
PARTY REUNITED 101 
 
 With a struggle and a scramble we passed round 
 the head of the lake and came in view of the men 
 resting on the sledges. The unbelieving Svensen 
 had climbed a neighbouring eminence to look 
 out. Nielsen informed us that Svensen had been 
 full of forebodings all day. They would never 
 see us again, he said. We were gone into the 
 wilderness and would be engulfed ; as for them, 
 when the provisions were finished they in their 
 turn would die of starvation. Fool that he was 
 not to take his old woman's advice and stay at 
 home where he was well off, instead of coming to 
 this snow-buried circle of the infernal regions ! 
 Camp was pitched on the very tracks of our 
 upward journey. Then the sky clouded over and 
 the wind rose. After one last look towards 
 Kings Bay, reflecting the golden west and framed 
 by purple hills, we closed the tent-doors and 
 rejoiced to be "at home." 
 
 The lovely weather re-established itself in the 
 daylit night, so that, when we awoke, sunshine lay 
 abroad upon the glacier. Looking downward we 
 had on our right hand the dull slope of the Queens 
 group, where a smooth side glacier comes slanting 
 down the midst of it from a col whose existence 
 had not been revealed till now. It was decided 
 to climb to this col for the purpose of making a 
 closer investigation of the structure of the group. 
 The march accordingly began with a long tra- 
 versing descent of the main glacier to a point on 
 
102 OSBORNE GLACIER 
 
 its right bank at the foot of the side glacier. It 
 mischanced that the area to be traversed was 
 exactly the wettest belt of the whole basin. We 
 skirted it on the ascent ; now we had to go right 
 across it, and that too after a series of fine melting 
 days. The watery surface shone like a lake, and 
 did in fact consist of a succession of pools, com* 
 municating with one another by slushy belts 
 through which streams sluggishly meandered. 
 The reader must not conceive of the pools, 
 streams, and snow as corresponding to water and 
 land, for the snow, even where it emerged, was 
 permeated with water like a saturated sponge. 
 When the autumnal frost masters a snowbog and 
 binds its errant molecules into a mass, there is 
 formed a solid, built up of ice-prisms, each about 
 one inch in diameter and as long as the bog was 
 deep. Prismatic ice of this kind, the product of 
 the preceding winter, is frequently met with on 
 Spitsbergen glaciers. Its cause puzzled us greatly 
 when first we came upon it. With the motion of 
 the glacier, the formation of crevasses, and so 
 forth, it often happens that the side pressure 
 which held the prisms together is removed. Their 
 tendency is to thaw and separate along their 
 planes of junction. By this means are produced 
 opening sheaves of long ice-crystals, most beauti- 
 ful to look upon. I have found them in quantities 
 a foot or more long, opening out " like quills upon 
 a fretful porcupine." Where there is no relaxation 
 
WATERLOGGED SNOW 103 
 
 of lateral pressure, the crystals are held together ; 
 but they form a fabric of weak cohesion, and when 
 you tread upon it your foot crunches in, almost as 
 far as into snow. 
 
 Across this uncomfortable region we travelled 
 for hours. Sometimes there were deep channels 
 to cross ; rarely a dry, hard patch intervened ; 
 most of the time there was slush of different con- 
 sistencies which we had to push through. The 
 sledges seemed to grow heavier and more resistent 
 every hour. One of them, of which the runners 
 were not shod with metal, came to grief at a 
 stream-gully, where it pitched on its nose and 
 smashed a runner. At last the water was left 
 behind and dry ice gained. At the foot of a long, 
 downward slope we found a big, frozen lake that 
 had not yet burst the bonds imposed on it by the 
 previous winter ; crossing its rough surface, we 
 climbed on to the moraine beyond, at the foot 
 of the side glacier now to be ascended. The 
 stone debris of dolomite rock, covering the lower 
 part of the slope, were dotted about with various 
 common plants, Dry as octapetala, Saxifmga oppo- 
 sitifolia, arctic poppy, and so forth, the same that 
 grow in the interior wherever there is any soil to 
 accommodate them. Of the ascent little need 
 be said. We shall not soon forget it. The slope 
 was the steepest encountered by the sledges. Our 
 forces just sufficed to raise them, but there was 
 nothing to spare. We arrived at the level top 
 
104 OSBORNE GLACIER 
 
 exhausted. Camp was pitched on the col, a wide 
 snow-saddle between the Queen (4060 ft.) and an 
 unimportant but commanding buttress peak. To 
 the latter I hurried, desirous of making observations 
 while the view was clear, for sea-mists had been 
 observed crawling up both from Kings and 
 English bays, and uniting on the pass near Mount 
 Nielsen. There is nothing more beautiful than a 
 sea-fog beheld from above when the sun shines 
 upon it. By contrast its brilliant metallic white- 
 ness makes purest snow grey. Then it moves so 
 beautifully, gliding inland and putting out arms 
 before it or casting off islands that wander away 
 at their own sweet will. Enchanting to look 
 upon are these sea-fairies, save to the victim to 
 their embraces. Once inveigled, all their beauty 
 vanishes, for within they are cold, cheerless, and 
 grey, like the depths whence they spring. But 
 to-day they were not destined to advance far. 
 They came up boldly a while, then faltered and 
 turned back, remaining thenceforward among 
 the seracs and crevasses, except a few rambling 
 outliers that floated away over the glacier or 
 hovered as bright islands in hollows of the surface. 
 Faint beds of variously transparent vapour, hori- 
 zontally stratified, barred across the fine range 
 of craggy mountains and their glacier cascades 
 that filled the space between Cross Bay and the 
 Crowns Glacier, a mountain group with an excep- 
 tionally fine skyline. We were encamped at that 
 
PRETENDER PASS 105 
 
 level of the glacier which may be described as 
 the singing level, where water trickles all about, 
 tinkling in tiny ice-cracks, rippling in rivulets, 
 roaring in moulins, and humming in the faint base 
 of the remoter torrents. It is only on slopes of a 
 reasonable inclination that these sounds arise. 
 The flat snowbogs of our morning traverse were 
 soundless. 
 
 Late in the evening, the weather being perfectly 
 re-established, I returned alone to camp. It was 
 an enchanted hour. On one hand, as I sat in the 
 tent-door, facing the sunshine and the view, was 
 the fine peak we named Pretender, rising above 
 the battlement-ridge of the western Queen. On 
 the other hand was a lower hill, shutting off the 
 distance and turning toward me a splendid 
 precipice of rock. Between them was the 
 opening through which the glacier, falling away 
 from my standpoint, joined the apparently bound- 
 less expanse of the Crowns Glacier. Beyond 
 were beautiful hills with the silver mist kissing 
 their feet, and, above them in the clear sky, a few 
 wisps of cloud. No breath of air moved, but 
 falling waters sang from near and far, and a 
 fulmar's whirr occasionally broke the stillness. 
 At such times Nature gathers a man into herself, 
 transforming his self-consciousness into a con- 
 sciousness of her. All the forms and colours of 
 the landscape sink into his heart like the expres- 
 sion of a great personality, whereof he himself is a 
 
106 PRETENDER PASS 
 
 portion. Ceasing to think, while Nature addresses 
 him through every sense, he receives direct 
 impressions from her. In this kind of nirvana 
 the passage of time is forgotten, and as near an 
 approach to bliss is experienced as this world is 
 capable of supplying. 
 
 The passing hours, whereof some were devoted 
 to sleep, witnessed the establishment of the 
 weather's perfection. Heights and depths were 
 cloudlessly clear, save low down over the bay, 
 w T here the bright mist stretched like a carpet far 
 out to sea. Buckling on my snowshoes, I slid 
 forth down the slope, which curved over so 
 steeply at the top that its foot was hidden by the 
 bulge. The exhilaration of that rush through the 
 crisp air is yet quick in remembrance. The cliffs 
 on either hand, glorious battlemented walls of 
 dolomite, seemed to be growing as we descended 
 the side-glacier, whose exit, when we came to it, 
 proved to be closed across by a rampart of 
 moraine. Over this moraine, at a later hour, the 
 sledges had to be carried to the ice of the 
 extreme left margin of the Crowns Glacier, up 
 which we were now to advance. There was 
 no threat of serious impediment for a mile or 
 so, but unexpected obstacles always lie in wait 
 the seasoning salt of the delight of exploration. 
 A hundred yards on we were brought up sharply 
 by a deep, impassable ice-gully or water-channel, 
 stretching away into the glacier on the left and 
 
PRETENDER CAMP 107 
 
 coming out of the moraine. We turned along its 
 bank and came into the angle where an equally 
 impassable tributary channel branched into it. 
 There was nothing to be done but follow this 
 backward to an overhanging place, cross it there, 
 and then carry the sledges in turn, about a 
 quarter of a mile over moraine, to a point where 
 the other channel fortunately proved traversable. 
 Hummocky ice succeeded for the rest of the 
 march, beneath the grand cliffs of the Pretender 
 (3480 ft.). Two great corries cut into these cliffs, 
 the second of them starting exactly beneath the 
 summit of the peak. We camped at a safe 
 distance below its narrow mouth, beyond the 
 range of frequent volleys of falling stones. 
 
 From this point to the base camp would be 
 one long day's march for men with sledges. We 
 had three and a half days' provisions left. We 
 could therefore only spare two and a half days for 
 exploration of the neighbourhood. That was not 
 enough, so we sent the two men away with 
 empty sacks to fetch more stores. There was 
 plenty of work to be done in the neighbourhood, 
 for the Pretender's cliff disclosed all the mysteries 
 of the great fault, which, cutting right across the 
 country, approximately along the line of the 
 King's Highway, divides the uncontorted, almost 
 horizontally stratified plateau-region of the north 
 from the series of ranges of splintered peaks 
 extending southward to the Dead Man. Accu- 
 
108 PRETENDER PASS 
 
 rate observation and careful mapping were, there- 
 fore, essential. 
 
 After lunch, when the men were gone away, we 
 sat on a sledge in the sunshine, with our coats off, 
 rejoicing in life. The glacier was working and 
 cracking about us unceasingly ; stones kept top- 
 pling from the moraine close by. High aloft rose 
 the Pretender's cliff, 2000 feet, almost sheer. It is 
 the most beautifully coloured cliff I ever saw. 
 For foundations it has a contorted mass of ruddy 
 archaean rocks, brilliantly adorned with splashes 
 of golden lichen, picked out with grass-grown 
 ledges. Here, as all along the mountain's face, 
 are the nesting-places of countless birds. The 
 fulmar petrels choose the lower edges ; some, as 
 we found, only just beyond reach of a man's 
 hand. The wall below them is generally over- 
 hanging, for the birds know exactly the limits of 
 a fox's climbing powers, and they avoid places 
 accessible to him. Higher up are the homes of 
 the little auks, who sit close together in rows, 
 sunning their white bosoms. On the top of 
 every jutting pinnacle of rock a glaucous gull 
 keeps watch, with his own nest near at hand, 
 ready to dive into any unprotected nest, or to 
 pounce on any unfortunate bird that falls a victim 
 to disease. The little auks always fly together 
 in companies, I suppose for mutual protection. 
 There is continual warfare between them and the 
 gulls, but it seems to be carried on in accordance 
 
NESTING BIRDS 109 
 
 with some accepted law, for though any stray 
 auklet or fallen fledgling is fair game for a gull, 
 he does not seem to attack individual auks 
 sitting near their nests. Indeed, we often saw 
 auks and glaucous gulls sitting close together on 
 the same ledge, when it would have been easy 
 for the gull to have snapped up one of his small 
 neighbours. This, however, must be illegal. We 
 never saw such a crime committed, and the auks 
 evidently felt confident of the gull's correct 
 behaviour. The nests are not placed in the 
 gullies where stones habitually fall. No matter 
 how big stone-avalanches may come down the 
 usual ruts, the birds watch them unconcerned. 
 But when a stray stone fell down the cliff in an 
 exceptional direction, the birds flew out in their 
 hundreds and thousands, filling the air with 
 protests, the fulmars swooping around, the little 
 auks darting forth horizontally at a higher level 
 straight out and back again, whilst the glaucous 
 gulls more leisurely floated away on confident 
 wing, their white plumage seeming scarcely more 
 solid than the glowing air which sustained their 
 poise. 
 
 Above the ancient foundation rocks of the 
 mountain comes a bed of green sandstone, above 
 this a dark red bed, the same which forms the 
 substance of all the Crowns group, except their 
 caps. On the top of the sandstone, whose face 
 has a sloping profile, is planted the summit cap 
 
110 PRETENDER PASS 
 
 of pink dolomite, cut off on this side in a plumb- 
 vertical cliff horizontally stratified. High aloft 
 in the wonderful air this rose-pink cliff, with its 
 level lines of orange and other tones, like courses 
 of masonry, was an object of rarest beauty, as all 
 who know the Dolomites of Tirol can realise ; 
 but the sharp clear atmosphere of the Alps must 
 yield the palm to the soft mellow arctic air, in 
 which Spitsbergen's mountains almost seem to 
 float. Rose-pink aloft, then purple-red, then 
 green, and finally red again splashed with orange 
 and green : such was the chord of colour pre- 
 sented by this lovely mountain-face between the 
 blue sky and the white glacier foreground. 
 
 A funnel-shaped gully, with its upper edge at 
 the foot of the dolomite cliff and the foot of its 
 couloir ending on the glacier, was exactly behind 
 our camp. Snow-slopes at its head were melting 
 fast in the sun, so that a cascade laughed aloud 
 all down the height of it. Stones were con- 
 tinually loosened by the melting ; each started 
 others in its fall, so that the rattle of tumbling 
 rocks, now and again swollen by the roar of some 
 big stone avalanche, kept the air in ceaseless 
 vibration. 
 
 I made two expeditions out upon the glacier in 
 different directions for the purpose of investigating 
 its character at its most energetic part, just below 
 the summer snowline. It was a maze of crevasses 
 throughout its entire breadth and all the way 
 
GLACIER PHENOMENA 111 
 
 down from the edge of the neve to the sea. A 
 few traversable lines of route could be found, 
 either parallel to and between the crevasses, or 
 across them, where, owing to a change of slope in 
 the bed, the lips of the crevasses were brought 
 together within striding range. At best the surface 
 was very bumpy, and I foresaw a bad time coming 
 for the sledges. The ice phenomena would have 
 struck any Alpine climber as curious. Every year 
 there are added, even to the central and crevassed 
 portion of an arctic glacier, accumulations of ice 
 formed by the thawing and re-freezing of the 
 winter snow, and these patchwork additions take 
 the most unexpected forms. For instance, a 
 crevasse that happens to be full of water will be 
 roofed over with ice a few feet thick. If the rest 
 of the water is then drained off a tunnel is formed, 
 across which again crevasses may open. We 
 found two or three such tunnels, whose roofs had 
 been squeezed up into barrel-vaults. One of them 
 was still full of water, but the roof had been 
 raised high above it by pressure, and a doorway 
 had been formed by the fall of a portion of the 
 arch. I climbed into this grotto and stood on a 
 ledge. Sunlight glimmered through the crystal 
 roof ; the walls were white ; for floor there were 
 the indigo-blue depths of the water. This was 
 but one of the strange and beautiful objects that 
 the glacier offered to the wanderer's admiration. 
 Near the foot of the Pretender a blood-red river, 
 
112 PRETENDER PASS 
 
 dyed with the dust of the falling sandstones, 
 flowed in a deep white channel cut into the 
 glacier. It soon came to the crevasse that was its 
 fate and plunged down the fatal moulin. That 
 was close to camp. Of course, we called it the 
 Moulin Rouge ! 
 
 After wandering far I returned home for- the 
 night, meeting Garwood on the way. Our backs 
 were to the boundless snowfields ; before us the 
 Pretender's mighty cliff shone warm under the 
 mellow midnight sun, pink high aloft, crimson 
 and green at lower levels, and striped blood-red 
 where the water was pouring down. The white- 
 mounded glacier was mottled over with blue 
 shadows. Perfect weather, perfect scenery, perfect 
 health what more could we desire ? 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 WHEN the sun passed round behind the Pretender, 
 casting his shadow out upon the glacier far 
 beyond camp, a hard frost set in, sealing up the 
 runlets of water and binding the loosened rocks 
 on the face of the cliff, so that stonefalls became 
 rare ; but no sooner did the fiery monarch 
 come out from his retreat behind the moun- 
 tains in the east than all the batteries of the 
 hills opened to salute him. The afternoon of 
 August 3, being our morning, Garwood and I 
 shouldered packs for a scramble on the Pretender, 
 minded to pass northward round his foot and 
 then make way up the ridge that forms, higher 
 up, the lip of the funnel of the falling stones. 
 The weather was glorious, but the white sea- 
 fog had crept up to the tents, so that we set 
 forth from the very edge of the mist. After 
 going some little way up the main glacier we bore 
 to the right on to the hillside, and went diagon- 
 ally up a slope of snow. Below on the left was a 
 bergschrnntl, and above on the right were the steep 
 
 H 
 
114 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 rocks. Presently the slope increased and became 
 of hard ice, into which Garwood cut steps. The 
 position was not altogether a safe one, for we had 
 not bothered to bring a rope, and now discovered 
 that quantities of stones were in the habit of fall- 
 ing down the slope into the bergschmnd, which 
 was ready to engulf either of us impartially in the 
 event of a slip. However, we did not slip, and 
 the sun had not yet reached the stones, which 
 were still in the bondage of frost. The rocks 
 above the slope were safely reached and a brief 
 scramble carried us over the edge of the ridge on 
 to the screes of the north-east face. Beyond 
 them was a wide snow-slope reaching up to the 
 steep dolomite cap that forms the top 500 feet 
 of the peak. The snow was hard frozen, so 
 the ascent had to be made up the screes. They 
 were particularly loose, and that is all to say 
 about them. Scree-slopes are never anything but 
 nasty to climb. The top of them was the edge of 
 the nearly level ridge, whence we looked down 
 into the funnel on the other side and across to the 
 beautiful dolomite cliff visible from camp. At 
 the foot of the couloir of the funnel we could 
 just discover our tiny tents. 
 
 The point thus gained was all that could be 
 desired for surveying and geologising. Now was 
 displayed in all its wide extent the ntve region of 
 the Crowns Glacier, utterly different in character 
 from that of the King's Highway. Here was no 
 
SCRAMBLE ON THE PRETENDER 115 
 
 ice-filled trough between two serrated walls, but a 
 huge expanse, so gently sloping as to appear flat 
 a marble pavement, of three hundred square miles, 
 beneath the blue dome of heaven. Far away it 
 swelled into low white domes, on whose sides a 
 few rocks appeared, whilst in the north-east was 
 its undulating upper edge, beyond which were 
 remoter snow-covered plateaus with mountain 
 summits peering over from yet farther off. The 
 white neve was lined by the many-branching water- 
 channels of its drainage system, like the veins in a 
 leaf, indicating the structure and trend of the ice. 
 Where areas were crevassed, blue shadows toned 
 the white. Everywhere the delicate modelling of 
 the surface, by slightly varying the amount of 
 light reflected to the eye, produced a tender play 
 of tones, within the narrowest conceivable limits 
 from brightest to darkest. The whole was visibly 
 a flowing stream, not a stagnant accumulation, for 
 the curves of flow were everywhere discernible. 
 Thus a sense of weight and volume was added to 
 the effect of boundless expanse which first over- 
 whelmed the observers. The noble flood of ice, 
 narrowing considerably between the hill on which 
 we stood, and the beautifully composed group of 
 sharp-crested rock-peaks opposite, disappeared 
 beneath the floor of sea-mist whereon the sun- 
 shine lay dazzling. 
 
 Turning round toward the east from this en- 
 thralling prospect, the eye rested on the group 
 
116 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 of the famous Crowns. They are called the 
 Three Crowns on all the maps, but there are 
 many more than three. The prominent trio are 
 pyramidal hills of purple sandstone, shaped with 
 almost artful regularity, each surmounted by a 
 cap of the same dolomite limestone as that which 
 crowns the Pretender. They resemble golden 
 crowns above purple robes. The caps are the 
 fragmentary remains of an ancient plateau, 
 denuded away in the lapse of time. Just behind 
 the Three Crowns we saw a low broad pass, 
 giving access to the head of a glacier flowing 
 eastward. There was sea-fog lying on it also, so 
 we knew that Ekman Bay could not be very far 
 off in that direction. This is the lowest and 
 shortest pass between Kings Bay and Ice Fjord. 
 Lightly laden men could cross this way in a long 
 day's march from sea to sea, climbing one of the 
 Crowns en route. The expedition would take 
 them through what is, to my thinking, the finest 
 scenery in Spitsbergen. The whole panorama 
 was clear to the remotest edge of the horizon, 
 flooded with undimmed sunshine, and over- 
 arched by a sky faintly blue below, deeply azure 
 in the fathomless zenith. 
 
 We spent some hours at this point, lunching 
 admiring, and taking observations. The view 
 was, to me, so novel in character, so beautiful, so 
 full of revelations that, for a long time, I was too 
 excited to work. The other side, though less 
 
VIEW FROM THE PRETENDER 117 
 
 unusual, was hardly less wonderful. There the 
 eye plunged down into the depth of the funnel, 
 and beheld the stone-avalanches beginning their 
 fall. Far below were the flocks of birds flying 
 about the rocks. Their cries came faintly up to 
 us. Finally, close at hand there was the great 
 dolomite cliff, an absolute wall, more than ever 
 resembling some artificial structure, the work of 
 giants, falling to decay. The varied colouring of 
 its beds and the vertical streaks caused by trick- 
 ling water were as beautiful close at hand as 
 when seen from the depths of the gulf of air 
 below. We walked along the narrow ridge to 
 the actual foot of this cliff, where the arete rises 
 vertically, so that the further ascent must be 
 made by the north-east face. There was a height 
 of about 500 feet to be climbed by way of snow 
 slopes, here and there narrowing into gullies 
 between protruding beds of rock so, at least, we 
 thought, but the attempt showed that the slopes 
 were of hard ice. The step-cutting involved had 
 no attractions, for there was nothing to be gained 
 by ascending to the peak. It would only show, 
 on the other side, country already known to us, 
 whilst we were to have many better opportunities 
 of looking northward from points both higher 
 and better situated. What settled the matter 
 finally was the sight of our men just arriving at 
 camp heavily laden with good things. We 
 accordingly turned round and took the easy 
 
118 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 way downhill, glissading a good part of it on 
 treacherous snow-covered ice. 
 
 After supper another expedition was made 
 down the glacier all along under the Pretender's 
 face, in further investigation of the fault. It is 
 only thus, by constant moving about beneath 
 a great cliff, that one is finally enabled to 
 realise its magnitude. One true measure of 
 scale that a healthy man possesses is fatigue. 
 When you have learned by actual experience that 
 it takes several days' marching to pass the base of 
 a big Himalayan mountain, you begin to feel the 
 size of the thing. A precipice of 200 feet differs 
 only in size from one of 2000 feet. To appreciate 
 the majesty of the larger, you must become 
 physically conscious of its scale. Such know- 
 ledge has to be laboriously acquired. No one, I 
 imagine, who has not climbed the Matterhorn, 
 can have any real conception of the magnitude of 
 the pyramid beheld in the view from the Riffel ; 
 yet a consciousness of the magnitude is an essen- 
 tial element in the impressiveness of the view. I 
 believe that only mountain climbers are in a 
 position to thrill with perfect resonance to the 
 glory of a mountain prospect. The passion for 
 mountain-climbing derives much of its power 
 over men from thus fostering and developing in 
 them the capacity for admiration, wonder, and 
 worship in the presence of Nature's magnificence. 
 
 Next day (August 4) camp was again struck 
 
ASCENT OF THE MIDDLE CROWN 119 
 
 for an onward march, some supplies being left 
 behind for use on the way down. The crevassed 
 nature of the glacier involved the choice of a very 
 devious route far out upon the ice, then back 
 toward the Crowns. When the foot of the 
 middle Crown was reached, I called for my 
 camera, but it could not be found. It had dropped 
 off Nielsen's sledge, and he must go back to 
 retrieve it. Garwood and I accordingly set off to 
 climb the Crown, leaving Svensen below, plunged 
 again in miseries and forebodings, now that the 
 sea was becoming remote and snowfields were 
 spreading their hateful expanse around him. The 
 pyramids of the south and middle Crowns are 
 planted together on a snowy plinth. Up the 
 slope of this we ascended on ski, taking a devious 
 course to avoid the steepest incline, at the same 
 time steering clear of a few groups of open 
 crevasses. In three-quarters of an hour we were 
 standing at the foot of the rocks, where the ski 
 were left behind. A long and steep slope of 
 debris had next to be surmounted. The material 
 lies in an unstable condition and slips away 
 beneath the foot at every step. Keeping as 
 close as possible to the left arete, we gained 
 height steadily. The debris accumulation becomes 
 thinner as the summit is approached. Halfway 
 up, little walls of rock emerge, and afford some 
 agreeable scrambling. By the last of these the 
 arete itself is gained and the ascent completed 
 
120 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 along it, except where an overhanging snow 
 cornice forces the climber down on the south 
 face. A little chimney gives access to the 
 crowning rock (4000 ft.). The ascent from the 
 top of the snow-slope took three-quarters of an 
 hour. It is easy enough. The southern Crown 
 (3840 ft.) can be similarly climbed by its south 
 face, but the northern Crown (4020 ft.) would be 
 more difficult, for it is cut off, apparently all the 
 way round, by a short precipice, perhaps a 
 hundred feet high. There are some gullies 
 grooved into this wall, but they too are vertical. 
 One or other of them would certainly prove 
 climbable if any one cared to give the time needed 
 for the attempt. All three Crowns were reputed 
 inaccessible by the general opinion of persons 
 who had only seen them from Kings Bay. 
 
 Our ascent was made for the purpose of obtain- 
 ing a view, and generously were we rewarded. 
 The northern Crown is higher than the middle 
 one, and that in turn than the southern ; but the 
 differences are a few feet only, whilst in point of 
 situation the middle Crown is best placed for a 
 panorama. Garwood and I agreed that it was 
 the most beautiful we had seen in Spitsbergen, 
 though it was afterwards equalled by the view 
 from the Diadem, and surpassed, in some respects, 
 by that from Mount Hedgehog. What struck us 
 most was the colour. The desert of snow was 
 bluish or purplish-grey ; only the sea-mist, hiding 
 
VIEW FROM THE MIDDLE CROWN 121 
 
 Kings Bay and the foot of the glacier, was 
 pure white. In the foreground were the golden 
 Crowns above purple slopes casting rich blue 
 shadows. On the snowfields lay many sapphire- 
 blue lakes. All the rock in sight was of some 
 rich colour yellow, orange, purple, red. Large 
 glaciers radiated away in several directions : one 
 down to Ekman Bay, whose head we could see, 
 another to Ice Fjord, beyond whose distant 
 waters we recognised Advent Bay and the hills 
 behind it, with clouds lying still upon them. 
 Last year, whenever we saw King James Land in 
 the distance the sun was always shining on it. 
 This year the Advent Vale region was hardly 
 ever seen clear of clouds. It is the bad weather, 
 as King James Land is the fine weather region of 
 Spitsbergen. 
 
 To the south were a maze and multitude of 
 peaks. We thought that we identified Hornsunds 
 Tind in a solitary white tower very far away. I 
 afterward took a true bearing of it with the 
 theodolite, and, on reducing the observation at 
 home, find that the peak observed stands exactly 
 in the line of Hornsunds Tind ; so that if the two 
 are not identical the coincidence is extraordinary. 
 The distance of the mountain from the Three 
 Crowns is just a hundred miles. I find it difficult 
 to believe that such a distance can often be 
 pierced by the sight in the relatively dense 
 atmosphere of Spitsbergen. Foreland Sound 
 
THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 was, as usual, full of fog, but the peaks of the 
 Foreland itself rose out of its shining embrace. 
 The highest group is south of the middle of the 
 island ; its members are beautifully white and of 
 graceful form. Farther north the peaks are 
 smaller and only their tips appeared. The Cross 
 Bay Mountains with their serrated edge looked 
 finer than ever ; then came the great snow- 
 field, beheld in all its extent, stretching up to 
 a high undulating crest and back to remote bays 
 and hollows fascinating to look upon, but who 
 shall say how wearisome to wander over ? Far 
 away to the north-east was a row of mountains of 
 varied forms, some white and dome-like, others 
 sharply pointed, others again chisel-edged. We 
 saw them now for the first time, and believed 
 them to be the range that borders Wijde Bay on 
 the west ; but they have since proved to be the 
 mountains at the head of that bay, between it and 
 Dicksons, a range of unsuspected importance in 
 the structure of the country. The sky overhead 
 was blue and clear, fading downward into white, 
 as in an old Flemish picture. There was no 
 movement in the cool air. Garwood left me 
 alone on the top and went down to crack rocks. 
 Long did I sit in perfection of enjoyment, letting 
 my eye roam round and round the amazing 
 panorama. There was a peculiar sensation of 
 being in the midst of a strange world, whose 
 parts seemed to radiate from this point. Never 
 
SKI EXPEDITION 123 
 
 did I feel more keenly the wonder of the domain 
 of ice. Utter silence reigned, till there came a 
 writhing in the air, heard but not felt. It passed, 
 returned, and passed again, as though flocks of 
 invisible beings were hurrying by on powerful 
 wings. 
 
 Chilled to the bone, at length I began the 
 descent, picking up Garwood and some of his fossil 
 spoils on the way. A magnificent ski-slide carried 
 us in a great curving zigzag, first to the foot of the 
 southern Crown, then round the snowy base to 
 the tents. We dropped a thousand feet in a few 
 minutes. So keen was the joy of this rush through 
 the air, that we talked of scrambling up again to 
 repeat it, but the attractions of supper proved 
 more powerful than those of glissading. 
 
 Our view from the middle Crown showed that 
 nothing was to be gained by pushing camp far- 
 ther north, unless we went very much farther 
 than the means at our disposal permitted. The 
 whole region for many miles round could be 
 mapped from the summits of hills within reach 
 of our present camp. We judged it better, there- 
 fore, to climb from that base, rather than to spend 
 time dragging sledges about over almost feature- 
 less snowfields. So, next morning (August 5), 
 away we went on ski Garwood, Nielsen, and I 
 carrying instruments and food on our backs, 
 and delighted to have no hindering load a-drag 
 behind. The weather continued faultless. Our 
 
124 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 plan was to follow the left margin of the glacier 
 to the bay beyond the northern Crown, to turn 
 up that to its head, and to climb the Diadem 
 Peak, whose situation seemed specially favourable 
 for a view. The snow was very soft and became 
 softer every hour, but we shuffled comfortably 
 over it and pitied our poor colleagues in the Alps, 
 wading knee-deep in neve. The surface was not 
 really in good condition for skiing ; it was too 
 soft and adhesive to be slippery. However, 
 we made good progress, and in less than two 
 hours the northern Crown was passed and the 
 side glacier opened. It flows down from a ring 
 of dolomite-capped peaks and comes out into the 
 main glacier between the northern Crown and 
 the peak beyond it, named by us the Exile because 
 its crown has been wholly denuded away. It is a 
 regular pyramid of red sandstone with top and 
 corners rounded off. There is not a fragment 
 of rock visible in situ, the whole solid substance 
 of the mountain being buried beneath accumula- 
 tions of debris. 
 
 Turning, then, with the northern Crown on our 
 right hand, the Exile on our left, and the great 
 snowfield at our backs, we made diagonally up 
 the side glacier toward a snow-saddle between 
 the Exile and the Diadem. All the snow was 
 saturated with water, which gravitated to the 
 middle of the valley and formed a great Slough 
 of Despond there. Advancing very gingerly to 
 
SNOWY SLOUGH OF DESPOND 125 
 
 find a way across, I suddenly sank up to my waist 
 in the freezing mixture. The ski turned round 
 under my feet and fastened them down, so that 
 I was helplessly anchored, and it was all that 
 Nielsen and Garwood could do to withdraw me 
 from the uncomfortable position. We ultimately 
 passed round the head of the Slough and swiftly 
 made for the rocks of the Exile, where I undressed 
 and wrung out my dripping things. Whether it 
 was more comfortable to sit half-clothed while 
 the things dried, or to put them on in a sodden 
 condition, was a question I am now enabled to 
 decide by experience. Fortunately the sunshine 
 had a little warmth in it, but the preliminary bath 
 certainly did not add to the enjoyment of lunch. 
 
 Just below the rocks was an open bergschritnd 
 into which Nielsen tumbled, ski and all, but he 
 caught the upper edge and extricated himself with 
 a mighty kick and pull. The hidden crevasses 
 over which we slid were countless, but the ski 
 deprived them of all power to injure or annoy. 
 A slide from the rocks to the broad snow-saddle, 
 then the ascent of the Diadem began. We knew 
 that it would present no difficulties below the 
 summit rocks. They were vertical on our side, 
 but there were indications that the snow-slope 
 reached far up them on the other. For some 
 distance we could climb straight ahead ; then the 
 slope steepened and we had to zigzag, each man 
 choosing his own route. About six hundred feet 
 
126 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 below the top, ski could no further go, for the 
 surface was hard frozen, so that they obtained no 
 grip upon it. They were accordingly left behind, 
 planted erect, for if they are left lying down they 
 will assuredly find means to break loose and go 
 careering away to some remote level place. As 
 soon as it became a question of kicking steps in 
 the increasingly hard and steep slope, the scattered 
 elements of the party concentrated and so came 
 to the foot of the final peak together. A snow- 
 slope, as we had foreseen, reached almost to the 
 top, but it was cut across by two large berg- 
 schrunds, well enough bridged. The rope was 
 now put on and the final approaches made in 
 orthodox fashion. Scrambling up a few steep 
 rocks, we came out on the curious little flat 
 summit plain (4154 ft.), from whose edges the 
 drop is vertical all round, except where the slope 
 we ascended abuts. 
 
 The view resembled that from the middle Crown, 
 but was more extensive to the north and east. 
 The whole island was displayed. We overlooked 
 the region of almost horizontally-bedded, chocolate- 
 coloured sandstone, capped with dolomite near at 
 hand, but dipping away from the old rocks under- 
 lying it, which appeared in the north-east as 
 mountain ranges. Advent Bay was again clearly 
 visible across Ice Fjord, so that the Diadem and 
 the Crowns can be seen from the hotel there, a 
 fact previously unsuspected. I set up the instru- 
 
VIEW FROM THE DIADEM 127 
 
 ments and worked for more than an hour, growing 
 colder and colder in the raw air. Garwood and 
 Nielsen warmed themselves by building a big 
 cairn as a monument of our climb. 
 
 The first stage of the descent required some 
 care, for the slope was steep and of ice, whilst the 
 bridges over the bergschrunds did not appear 
 particularly strong. Once on the main snow- 
 slope the rope could be laid aside and each could 
 make for his ski by the shortest route. Nielsen 
 went on ahead and disappeared over the bulging 
 declivity at a great rate, but when I tried to 
 follow his example I found it difficult to maintain 
 a footing on the hard, icy slope. The boards under 
 my feet shot away so quickly that without a 
 powerful break I could not maintain my balance. 
 No application of the spike of the ice-axe to 
 the slope produced friction enough to prevent 
 the bewilderment of a lightning-like descent, 
 which always ended in a shattering overthrow. 
 How Nielsen had managed remained a mystery 
 to me, till I came up with him and learnt that 
 he had put his ice-axe between his legs and 
 sat upon it, thus turning himself into a tripod on 
 runners. Riding, like a witch on a broomstick, 
 he gained the gentler slope below without delay 
 or misfortune. Garwood was less lucky, for one 
 of his ski gave him the slip and raced away on its 
 own account. We heard him howling aloft, but 
 knew not what about till his truant shoe had 
 
128 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 dashed past, heading for a number of open 
 crevasses. It leapt these in fine style, but bending 
 away to the right, made for the hollow, north of 
 the Exile, to which we had to descend to fetch it. 
 Rather than reascend and return over the mile of 
 snow-slope down which the ski had shot, we 
 changed the route of our return. To see Garwood 
 walking about unroped among the maze of cre- 
 vasses and crossing bergschrunds by rotten snow- 
 bridges was decidedly unpleasant. If he had fallen 
 through anywhere we could have done nothing 
 for him, and he would never have been seen 
 again ; but the fates were propitious. Instead of 
 sliding down as we did, he had to wade through 
 knee-deep snow, but that was the limit of his 
 misfortune. 
 
 The great snowfield was joined at the north 
 foot of the Exile, and straight running made 
 for camp. It was a long and thirsty shuffle 
 back, for, since my immersion, we had come 
 across no drop of drinkable water, all that flows 
 from the Exile and the northern Crown being 
 chocolate-coloured and thick with sand. Areas of 
 snow formation, new to us in appearance, were 
 passed below the Exile ; the most remarkable was 
 where the surface of the neve was covered with a 
 kind of scaly armour-plating, consisting of discs 
 or flakes of ice, hard-frozen together, piled up 
 and projecting over one another. Wind was the 
 determining agent, I fancy, in producing this 
 
RETURN TO CAMP 129 
 
 phenomenon. Steadily plodding on over the now 
 uneven and adhesive snow, at last we reached 
 camp, about midnight, well satisfied with the 
 expedition. We had travelled eighteen and a 
 half miles over the softest neve snow imaginable, 
 besides climbing our peak and devoting some 
 hours, en route and on the top, to the work of 
 surveying. Without ski this would have been 
 hard work for three days. During our absence 
 Svensen had cleaned out the tents, dried and 
 aired our things, and otherwise made himself 
 useful. He had never expected us to appear 
 again, so that his work was perhaps the more 
 meritorious. Late at night we heard him lying in 
 his tent and " prophesying " (as we used to call it) 
 in deep and solemn tones to Nielsen. The further 
 we went from the coast the more frequent and 
 solemn were these deliverances, not a word of 
 which could we understand. I asked Nielsen 
 what they were about. " Oh," he said, " he talks 
 about his farm and his old woman, and what 
 she gives him to eat ; and then he says if he ever 
 gets back home he will not go away any more as 
 long as he lives." 
 
 A few hours later Svensen set forth on his 
 ski to fetch an instrument I required from the 
 baggage below the Pretender. He was instructed 
 on no account to quit the tracks made by the 
 sledges on the way up, and to take care not 
 to fall into any of the crevasses. Once fairly 
 
 i 
 
130 THE SPITSBERGEN DOLOMITES 
 
 alone on the glacier, he proceeded to set these 
 directions at naught. The tracks were devious ; 
 he would make a short cut and save himself time 
 and distance. What mattered the maze of con- 
 cealed crevasses? He frankly walked along them, 
 whether on their arched roofs or the ice beside 
 them being a mere matter of chance. We saw 
 his tracks next day and wondered at his many 
 escapes. As it was, he fell into two crevasses and 
 only extricated himself with much difficulty. The 
 Svensen that returned to camp was a yet sadder 
 and more pessimistic individual than the one that 
 set forth. He had looked Death in the face, and 
 seemed to feel swindled in that he had escaped 
 destruction. 
 
 This day the sky was actually covered with 
 an unmistakable heat haze. Thunderstorms, I 
 believe, never occur in Spitsbergen ; if we had 
 not known this, we should have thought one was 
 brewing. It was actually hot and stuffy within 
 the tent, but outside the temperature was perfect. 
 Our intention was to climb the middle Crown 
 again, when Svensen returned, and to spend some 
 hours on the mountain, Garwood photographing 
 and hunting for fossils in the limestone, I observ- 
 ing angles. At last we could set forth with theo- 
 dolite and whole-plate camera for the top of the 
 Crown. There was no novelty in the ascent, 
 except that the sky was steadily clouding over, so 
 that we had to race the weather. Unfortunately 
 
MIDDLE CROWN AGAIN 131 
 
 the clouds won. The sun was blotted out when 
 we reached the top, many hills were obscured by 
 clouds, and the panorama was rendered relatively 
 uninteresting. There was nothing for Garwood 
 to photograph, and far fewer points for me to 
 observe than I could have wished. The cold 
 became bitter. Fiddling with the little screws of 
 the theodolite was horribly painful. I endured it 
 for more than an hour before complete numbness 
 rendered further work of that kind impossible. 
 Nielsen kept warmth in his veins by prizing 
 crags away ; they thundered and crashed over 
 the precipice on the north, finding a swift descent 
 down one of the many vertical chimneys, and 
 then rushing out on the snow-slope beneath. 
 The results of his labours were widely spread 
 abroad below. Before packing up to descend 
 we all joined in building a big cairn, which, I 
 think, will last for many years. A hurried 
 descent down rocks and screes and a fine ski- 
 slide to camp set the blood circulating merrily in 
 our veins. The tents were just within the margin 
 of a fog, which hung like a veil over the western 
 landscape, where a mottled roof of cloud above 
 the jagged crest of the Cross Bay hills shone 
 golden bright, fading away below into the misty 
 grey foreground of vaguely-outlined, broken ice. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 ALL appearances were convincing that the 
 weather had finally broken up, but a charm 
 seemed to lie upon King James Land this year, 
 for next morning (August 7) was fine as ever, 
 with skies brilliantly clear. The white fog still 
 covered the bay and the glacier's foot, but 
 retreated before us as we advanced on the down- 
 ward journey, for which the time had now come. 
 Instead of going far out on to the glacier, as in 
 our ascent, we kept a more direct course, for 
 crevasses that are too wide to drag sledges over 
 when going uphill are passable on the way down. 
 The sledges had to make many a downward 
 jump, and were greatly strained, but we reckoned 
 they would hold out to the coast, and so let 
 them take their luck. It was none of the best. A 
 certain broad crevasse opposed to our advance 
 its yawning chasm, whose higher side was much 
 above the lower. The first sledge took the jump 
 safely, but the second landed heavily on its nose, 
 and one runner snapped in half. We tied it up 
 
CREVASSED GLACIER 133 
 
 with string, but the jagged edge greatly increased 
 the friction during the remainder of the journey. 
 Near the Pretender we re-entered the circuit of the 
 nesting birds, and found their feathers at every 
 step of the way. A solitary fulmar sitting on the 
 ice only stirred when we approached him within 
 two yards. Then he flapped his wings and ran, 
 gradually rising into the air and helping himself 
 up by beating the ground with his feet, the action 
 used by fulmars when they rise from water. He 
 did not fly far, for he was obviously ill. Doubtless 
 a glaucous gull presently put an end to his exist- 
 ence. 
 
 Having kept along the left side of the glacier, we 
 came, at the foot of the Pretender, as we knew we 
 must, to a steep ice staircase, a slope of about 200 
 feet, broken by a series of large crevasses. A 
 longitudinal fold in the ice, caused by the narrow- 
 ing of the glacier at this point, added a more 
 complex irregularity to the steplike descent. This 
 was the worst place we had to convey sledges 
 over on the glaciers of Spitsbergen ; nor shall I 
 attempt to describe our labours. The sledges 
 were slung across some crevasses, let down over 
 others, gingerly conducted along ridges of ice 
 narrower than themselves, with profound chasms 
 on each side, hauled round the flanks of seracs, 
 and otherwise forced forward as circumstances 
 decreed. Once only did a misfortune occur, and 
 then the fault was mine. The slope was very 
 
134 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 steep, and there was a crevasse in the way. 
 Nielsen got on to its lower lip and began lifting 
 the bow of the sledge forward by means of the 
 drag-rope. I was hanging on behind with the 
 pick-end of the ice-axe hitched into the stern. 
 Just at the critical moment something gave way. 
 The ice-axe slipped out ; I fell backwards ; the 
 sledge lumbered down. That it would go right 
 into the crevasse and be utterly lost seemed certain. 
 But no ! it merely turned a somersault and wedged 
 itself in between two projecting noses of ice, which 
 held it firmly, till, with the assistance of the others, 
 we brought it safe to land. Shortly afterward the 
 site of Pretender Camp was reached, and our little 
 heap of stores found undisturbed by foxes or 
 birds. 
 
 We knew that the most tiresome part of the 
 day's journey was yet to come ; the lunch-halt 
 was consequently prolonged. To the foot of 
 Pretender Pass the way was easy enough, but 
 beyond that point difficulties were bound to 
 accumulate, for the glacier became so crevassed 
 as to be impassable even for men without sledges, 
 whilst, instead of snow-slopes along the left bank, 
 there was a widening lateral moraine. Fortunately 
 we found an irregular belt of snow between the 
 ridge of this moraine and the debris-slope behind 
 it ; along that belt we were able to make inter- 
 mittent advance, though the snow was freely 
 strewn with blocks of stone, over and around 
 
TROUBLE ON MORAINE 135 
 
 which, up and down and in and out, the sledges 
 had to be lifted and dragged. We were thankful 
 even for this small mercy, seeing that, if the snow 
 had not been there, we must have raised the 
 sledges bodily and carried them more than a mile 
 over the nastiest kind of moraine. As it was, we 
 had to carry them for several short spells. How 
 easy it looks on paper ! Four men, one at each 
 corner of the sledge ; they lift her, and along she 
 goes. But in practice, when the ground to be 
 traversed consists of loose rocks, each about the 
 size of a man's head, with ice below them, sloping 
 this way and that, uphill two yards, downhill three 
 yards, now tilted to the right, now to the left, 
 some one is always stumbling. They jog one 
 another from side to side. The weight gets 
 bandied about and heaved in all directions, so 
 that each wastes most of his work in counter- 
 balancing the unintentional irregularities of his 
 fellows' efforts. A halt had to be made halfway 
 along, but we vowed to finish this horrible part 
 of the route before camping. The stove was lit 
 and cocoa brewed to put heart into the men ; 
 then on again, plunging, tripping, twisting ankles, 
 barking shins, till at last there came a practicable 
 though lumpy stretch of ice alongside the moraine, 
 and we could launch the sledges on it and haul 
 them forward with less toil. We were close to 
 the angle where Kings and Highway glaciers join, 
 and the lateral moraines of both, uniting at the 
 
136 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 promontory of the dividing mountain, flow out as 
 a medial moraine, and are carried on by the glacier 
 and ultimately dumped over the ice-cliff into 
 Kings Bay. We crossed this medial moraine at 
 the earliest convenient place, then followed along 
 beside it till near midnight, when somebody, 
 turning round to survey the view, found it beauti- 
 ful, and proposed that camp should be pitched 
 straightway. 
 
 The air was crisp and cold. The sun shone 
 golden in the north, just tinged with the first pro- 
 mise of its winter setting. The mellow light 
 flooded with unusual glory of colour the many- 
 tinted rocks of the Crowns and Pretender, grouped 
 together in fine assemblage between the two 
 great glaciers, now both at once beheld back to 
 their highest snowfields. Such purples as the 
 autumnal midnight sun pours out on the so-called 
 Liefde-Bay sandstones of Spitzbergen had no 
 rival even in the richest product of Tyrian skill. 
 All night long the glacier worked and cracked 
 beneath us in its onward flow, squeezing its slow 
 way down through the narrowing channel. Loud 
 reports disturbed our slumbers, and at an early 
 hour brought us back to consciousness of the 
 beauty of the world and the continuing loveliness 
 of the weather. 
 
 The sky remained clear, and the white fog 
 brooded over the waters of the bay, when the men 
 started down with the sledges, leaving us to sit 
 
GREAT ICE TUNNEL 137 
 
 awhile on convenient rocks, smoking and enjoy- 
 ing the splendid scenery. Presently we also set 
 forth, not down, but across Highway Glacier to 
 examine the rocks of its left bank. A very large 
 lake-basin had to be crossed at the margin of the 
 ice. It proved to have been drained by the 
 biggest ice-tunnel I ever saw, a cavern at least 
 fifty feet in diameter and more than a hundred 
 yards long. I bolted into it, under the stones 
 perched loosely on its brow, and took some photo- 
 graphs of the weird grotto, whilst Garwood climbed 
 the riskily loose cliff behind and hunted for fossils. 
 Keeping across the mouth of a minor side glacier, 
 we came to the moraine crossed by us with so 
 much trouble on the upward way. The great 
 hollow beyond it was now perceived to be another 
 and yet larger lake-basin, drained in its turn by 
 the ice-canon which had formed one of our first 
 considerable impediments. This lake-basin is 
 more than half a mile in length, and some hun- 
 dreds of yards wide. It lies at the foot of Mount 
 Nielsen. Here, losing sight of Garwood, I turned 
 to seek the sledges. Not finding them, and being 
 too cold to loiter about, I walked briskly on down 
 the foot of the glacier, and did not halt till the base 
 camp was reached. It remained just as we left it, 
 thank goodness ! But it must have had a narrow 
 escape, for, at some time during our absence, a flood 
 of water came down the fan on which it stood, 
 cutting a new channel, whose still wet margin ran 
 
138 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 less than a hand's breadth from the angle of the 
 tent. Had the channel been deflected a couple of 
 yards, all our goods would have gone to sea ! 
 
 The roof of fog was overhead, yet the view was 
 most beautiful, for the sun shone through holes 
 in it upon the glacier's terminal cliff, barring it 
 with vertical bands of light and colour. There 
 were stripes of purple, violet, green, blue, and 
 white, made by the staining of the ice with stone 
 debris, or by new fractures manifesting the vary- 
 ing transparency of the mass, or by the play of 
 light and shadow upon it. The jagged hills 
 looked down through holes or behind veils of 
 mist. The water was absolutely calm, but more 
 thickly covered with broken ice than when we 
 last beheld it ; in fact, over great areas, the float- 
 ing blocks seemed to form a continuous ice- 
 covering. In calm weather this mattered little, 
 but if a northerly wind set in, all the ice would be 
 driven and packed down upon us, and we should 
 be imprisoned, who could say for how long ? 
 Obviously, therefore, it would be our business to 
 shift camp as soon as possible to some more 
 favourable situation. 
 
 Long I sat in the tent-door gazing at the view 
 and dreaming. What changes had taken place 
 here since Professor Sven Loven's visit in 1837, the 
 first visit of any man of science to this part of 
 Spitsbergen ! The island of which he wrote so 
 fully, with its " diminutive Alps " and moraines, 
 
GLACIAL ADVANCE 139 
 
 was separated from the glacier at that time by a 
 channel of open water 1000 feet wide ; now the 
 glacier almost surrounds it and has buried out of 
 sight the ground on which he stood. It had 
 already done so before Nordenskiold's visit in 
 1861, since when no considerable changes have 
 taken place. This is only one of many instances 
 of glacial advance during the present century. A 
 comparison between the seventeenth and eight- 
 eenth century Dutch charts and the maps of the 
 present day proves the general truth of this obser- 
 vation. The development seems to be still in 
 progress. Witness the great glacier-front which has 
 descended into Agardh Bay since 1871, and over 
 which we went in crossing the Ivory Gate last 
 year. Glaciers which end in shallow waters must, 
 indeed, be advancing slowly as they fill up the 
 bay heads, but this does not suffice to explain so 
 great an advance as that of the Kings Glacier 
 between 1837 anc * 1861. 
 
 The arriving sledges, dragged by men soaking 
 with perspiration, stopped these meditations. 
 Both sledges were on the point of breaking up, 
 such had been the strain upon them during the 
 last fortnight. They were extra strongly built, 
 and the runners were protected with metal sheaths, 
 yet there was not a sound joint left in them. The 
 metal had all been scraped and torn away, the 
 runners smashed up. If ordinary arctic travel 
 were as rough as this work over crevassed inland 
 
140 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 glaciers, such a sledging expedition as Nansen made 
 from the Fram would be impossible, for no sledge 
 could hold out a tenth part of his course. Our 
 sledges, moreover, were lightly laden with about a 
 third of the normal arctic load. Had they been 
 heavier, they could not have been dragged along 
 at all, or if forced forward they would have broken 
 up the first day. 
 
 It is only on returning to the coast that one 
 obtains a correct realisation of the silence of the 
 higher regions. The glacier-front kept " calving " ; 
 the floating ice kept cracking up and turning 
 over ; there was a noisy torrent flooding down 
 close to camp. Stones fell ; waves broke on the 
 shore. Such noises for a long time drove sleep 
 away. When I did slumber it was to dream of 
 glacier-lakes bursting, of avalanches falling, and 
 other catastrophes. 
 
 Next day we had the boat to drag down to the 
 sea two hours' work all our baggage to over- 
 haul, pack, and portage, so that it was late in the 
 afternoon before we were ready to sail. The long 
 hours of work were enlivened by the charm of the 
 scenery beneath the grey roof of sea-fog, which 
 still remained just where it had hung for so many 
 days. The variety of effects was extraordinary, for 
 there was no wind to move the fog, nor sunshine 
 coming through it. The floating ice sometimes 
 stood out white against the purple , background 
 and dark sky, sometimes dark against a white 
 
FLOATING ICE 141 
 
 curtain of mist, and sometimes it glittered behind 
 a vaporous veil. The water was now dark, like 
 lead, now bright as burnished steel. There was 
 continual change, yet no visible cause for change. 
 Out into this fairy region of calm water and pure 
 ice at last we rowed in search of new scenes, new 
 beauty, and new delights. 
 
 Our first goal was one of Loven's Islands, away 
 out in the midst of the bay, right over against the 
 ice-cliff of the Kings Glacier. To reach this we 
 had to row through a bed of water so closely 
 covered with broken ice that a way was made for 
 the boat by pushing the fragments asunder. They 
 were of all sizes and colours. Surfaces that had 
 been exposed to the air for some time were white, 
 as all ice becomes under such conditions. Others 
 newly cloven, or that had formed till recently the 
 submerged face of floating blocks, were blue or 
 green. There were pink pieces, dusted over with 
 sandstone debris; but the majority of the small 
 blocks, and most were small, were crystal clear, 
 like lumps of purest glass. The water was 
 absolutely still. Sunshine lay upon it, and the 
 great glacier-cliff, along which we rowed, was 
 reflected from the watery mirror. Every few 
 minutes the glacier " calved," and the resulting 
 waves rattled the ice about us, whilst the booming 
 thunder came echoing back from remote hollows 
 of the hills. Nielsen was reminded of days spent 
 by him as a sailor in fogs on the Newfoundland 
 
142 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 banks, when, as he said, they used to smell the 
 icebergs long before they loomed into view. 
 Kings Bay, of course, presents no bergs compar- 
 able in size to those that drift southward down the 
 coast of Greenland, though the floating masses we 
 were soon to approach were much larger than 
 those ordinarily met with in Spitsbergen waters. 
 As our distance from the south shore of the bay 
 increased, the mountains behind it were better 
 seen, and proved to be a fine ridge with many 
 peaks, the watershed between Kings and English 
 bays. A series of glaciers descend in their 
 hollows, but none reach the sea, for there is a 
 broad belt of flat land all along the southern 
 shore. The view up Kings Glacier now became 
 of entrancing beauty as the fog cleared away, and 
 all our peaks from Mount Nielsen round to the 
 Diadem were disclosed. How different was this 
 view to our eyes, which recognised every feature 
 and knew what was behind every impediment, 
 from our first outlook there last year, in a brief 
 interval between two storms ! The culmination of 
 the charm came when the small, partly ice-covered 
 island rose into our foreground, and the surging 
 waves of splintered glacier thrown up behind it 
 contrasted with the smooth wide-spreading snow- 
 fields far beyond. The ice-cliff north of the island 
 was more shattered than any we had yet beheld. 
 Here the greatest floating bergs enter the sea. 
 They do not fall into it, but simply float away, 
 
LOVEN ISLANDS 143 
 
 being already quite detached from one another by 
 the deep clefts of the ice. 
 
 From an examination of a great many sea- 
 fronting glacier-sections we learnt that crevasses, 
 however long and wide, seldom penetrate very 
 far down into the mass of ice. I do not remember 
 ever to have seen any crevasse (except at this 
 point) which cut a glacier-cliff down to sea-level. 
 Higher up in the neve region crevasses may be 
 more profound, but towards a glacier's snout I 
 am sure that their depth is often greatly over- 
 estimated. The ice in the foundation of a glacier 
 exists under great pressure and behaves very 
 differently from the surface ice, which is free to 
 break up under lateral strain. A careful study 
 of arctic ice-cliffs would, I think, give rise to 
 several unexpected revelations. The opening up 
 of Spitsbergen to ordinary summer travellers 
 would enable such simple but illuminating re- 
 searches to be undertaken by holiday-making 
 men of science. 
 
 The archipelago, which I have named Lovn's 
 Islands, after the explorer who first recorded a 
 visit to them, was now close at hand. We made 
 for a convenient cove and landed. Countless 
 screaming terns saluted us with a chorus of un- 
 mistakable imprecations. No bird that ever I saw 
 can swear like a tern. Till it opens its mouth 
 you would think it the very incarnation of gentle- 
 ness and grace, such the purity of its white 
 
144 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 plumage, the slenderness of its form, and the 
 elegance of all its motions. But it is my matured 
 conviction that in every tern there resides the 
 spirit of a departed bargee. On these islands 
 Loven found countless nesting birds of many 
 sorts, besides the spoor of reindeer and foxes. 
 We found only eider-ducks, terns, and a very 
 few geese ; of reindeer not a trace. There are 
 no reindeer left on the west coast of Spitsbergen. 
 We never saw a footprint on the shores of Klaas 
 Billen Bay, Kings Bay, or Horn Sound this year, 
 though in all three bays are square miles of 
 country admirably suited to feed and maintain 
 them and once supporting large herds. The 
 ruthless Norwegian hunter has exterminated them 
 utterly. 
 
 I need not expatiate on the gorgeousness of 
 the view from these islands. It was especially 
 fine to the north where white icebergs of all 
 fantastic forms floated in the dark purple re- 
 flections of the hills. The only sound heard, 
 besides the screaming of the terns and the boom 
 of the glacier-cliff, was the innumerable ploppings 
 of water against the myriad floating blocks of 
 ice. We landed on another island to cook a 
 meal and survey. The little plants were putting 
 on their autumnal colourings, most of the birds- 
 nests were abandoned, the young broods alas ! 
 sadly few in numbers disporting themselves in 
 the neighbouring waters. All the islands are 
 
SCORESBY'S GROTTO 145 
 
 smoothed by ice, for the Kings Glacier was 
 once at least 500 feet thicker and very much 
 longer than now. Probably, there are other 
 mounds of rock, continuing under the glacier the 
 line of these islands, and rumpling up the ice 
 into a crevassed condition otherwise difficult to 
 account for. 
 
 Turning away from the islands, we rowed toward 
 the east end of the rounded hill standing out into 
 the fjord, to which we gave the name Blomstrand's 
 Mound. From the published account of the 
 Swedish Expedition of 1861, we were led to 
 expect that Scoresby's Grotto would be found in 
 this direction. It was only afterwards, when we 
 procured a copy in the original Swedish, to which 
 are appended maps, not reproduced in the 
 German translation, that we discovered the where- 
 abouts of this grotto in Blomstrand's Harbour.* 
 We now had to wind about amongst large floating 
 towers and castles of ice, entrancingly beautiful. 
 The number of the great floating bergs seemed 
 countless. We passed by devious ways along 
 channels, between them, often being so entirely 
 surrounded as to seem on a lake built all about 
 with ice-castles. Some were hollowed out into 
 caverns with walls thin enough to let the light of 
 the low hanging midnight sun shine through. 
 
 * 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. 
 
 K 
 
146 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 We manoeuvred to get one of these directly 
 between us and the sun, so as to enjoy the 
 resplendence of its opalescent shimmer, con- 
 trasted with the blueness of the shadowed side of 
 the ice. Deep in the substance of the crystalline 
 wall shone out a host of sparkling points like 
 many-faceted diamonds enclosed in cloudy crystal. 
 The evening was perfect : calm, bright, mellow, 
 clear to the remotest distance, save just at one 
 point where a sea-mist came pouring over a pass 
 from English Bay, with a rainbow mantling on 
 its shoulder. 
 
 The drowsily creaking oars at length brought 
 us to the mainland, where camp was quickly 
 pitched on soft ground near a brook. There was 
 no grotto anywhere in the neighbourhood. The 
 slope of Blomstrand's Mound rose temptingly 
 behind. With plane-table and camera we hastened 
 forth to gain a more commanding panorama. 
 About 500 feet up was a convenient knoll, whence 
 the upper part of the mound was displayed as an 
 undulating plateau bending away to the culmi- 
 nating dome of the hill over a couple of miles 
 of bog land and broken rocks, extraordinarily 
 disagreeable to walk upon. The whole mound is 
 encircled on three sides by the bay, whilst on the 
 fourth a large glacier descending from the north 
 abuts against it, and sends an arm down into the 
 sea on either ..side. The view was, of course, 
 most extensive and beheld under rarely favour- 
 
COAL HAVEN 147 
 
 able conditions, for the low-striking, golden sun- 
 light mellowed all the glaciers and the hills. The 
 bay spread abroad below, as in a map, and the 
 icebergs on its surface were tiny dots of white, 
 whilst the areas closely covered with smaller, 
 broken ice resembled surfaces crisped by some 
 gentle breeze. 
 
 At 4 A.M. (August 10) we turned in. A few 
 hours later the weather was still fine, but at noon 
 the Crowns began to put on caps of cloud. Mists 
 gathered in all directions, wind rose, and soon all 
 was overcast and rain was falling on the tent. The 
 spell of fine weather was, in fact, at an end. By 
 3 o'clock we were rowing away in water no longer 
 calm. Yet it was charming to watch the graceful 
 rocking of the smaller pieces of floating ice, and 
 to see them turn over as their equilibrium was 
 disturbed. The old white surface went under, 
 the new blue side came up. There was now but 
 one day left before the Kvik ought to call for us. 
 The weather was too thick for surveying, so we 
 settled to make at once for Coal Haven, where 
 tertiary fossil plants had been found, though not 
 the characteristic Taxodium* Accordingly we 
 rowed straight across the bay, though no sign 
 could be seen of any inlet such as the chart 
 marks. There is, in fact, no inlet at all, but only 
 a low headland that protects the anchorage from 
 
 * Garwood was fortunate enough to discover a fine specimen 
 Of this. 
 
148 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 westerly winds. It is completely open to north 
 and east. On reaching the south coast and 
 finding no trace of the expected inlet, we rowed 
 along the shore toward Quade Hook for a couple 
 of miles. It was an open, pebbly beach, on which 
 we might have hauled up the boat, but whence it 
 could not have been launched in face of any sea, 
 like that now threatening to rise. Leaving the 
 men to keep the boat off shore, Garwood and I 
 landed to prospect. Just behind the narrow beach 
 was a low cliff, the front of a wide area of boggy 
 and stony ground from which the hills rise, half 
 a mile or so inland. Westward was no bay what- 
 ever, so we concluded that Coal Haven lay to the 
 east, where, in fact, we presently discovered it, 
 behind a low spit of shingle a few yards wide, 
 enclosing a lagoon. 
 
 While the men pitched camp, Garwood and 
 I walked inland to look for the coal-bed. Its 
 position is carefully described by 'Lament, but 
 we had only the book on the Swedish expedi- 
 tion of 1 86 1 with us, and, though the members 
 of that party visited and, I believe, discovered 
 the coal, they give no accurate account of its 
 position. We dimly remembered that it was 
 found where a glacier-stream cuts a section into 
 the ground. There were two glaciers ending 
 about a mile inland from the bay, so we walked 
 towards them and tracked up every stream flowing 
 from them, but found no coal. I then went to 
 
SHORT COMMONS 149 
 
 the west, Garwood to the east, till every inch of 
 land within Coal Haven had been traversed. It 
 was no good. A big stone man planted on a 
 mound, and with a slanting stick built into it, 
 seemed likely to be a guide to the hidden treasure ; 
 but there was no coal in the mound, nor anywhere 
 in the direction to which the stick pointed. We 
 have since learnt that the cairn marks one of the 
 points whose position was astronomically fixed 
 by the Swedes,* and that it has nothing to do with 
 the coal, which in fact is not found within Coal 
 Haven at all, but within the next bay to the east, 
 where of course we did not look for it. 
 
 A low cloud-roof, intermittently dropping rain, 
 hung continuously over Coal Haven during our 
 visit. Only the bases of hills and the grey snouts 
 of glaciers emerged beneath it. Sometimes a 
 dense mist came up ; rarely the drizzle held off 
 for half an hour. In this cheerless case black 
 melancholy invaded Svensen. At a moment of 
 gloomy forgetfulness he filled the pot with sea- 
 water for brewing soup. The mistake was for- 
 tunately discovered in time, for there was no food 
 to spare. When Garwood returned with half a 
 dozen guillemots, the last shot-cartridge had been 
 fired off. Svensen skinned the birds for the pot 
 with the sadness of a man condemned to death. 
 
 * 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 - 
 
150 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 " We will only eat half of them to-night," he said. 
 "Why?" I asked. "Because this is the last 
 proper food we shall have, and we may as well 
 make it hold out as long as possible. When did 
 you say the Kvik is coming for us ? " " At mid- 
 night to-night," I answered. "Not a bit of it. 
 Ikke I I heard the sailors on the boat say the 
 captain would not come for us at all. We shall 
 starve here." " Skittles ! They'll come for us to- 
 day or to-morrow." " Ikke ! they'll not come at 
 all, I believe." " I tell you they will ; the captain 
 undertook to come." " Ikke, ikke ! " We finished 
 all the birds, but the food almost stuck in Svensen's 
 throat. 
 
 When supper was done (it was the morning of 
 the nth) a surprising vigour seized our gloomy 
 companion. He jumped into the boat, pitched its 
 mast, sail, and some spars on shore, and carried 
 them away to the point. We watched him build 
 a big stone-heap and plant the mast in it with the 
 sail suspended as a flag. Then he turned in and 
 was heard loudly and solemnly prophesying to 
 himself in his fine declamatory style. We break- 
 fasted late in the afternoon on one of our last 
 soups and some mouldy biscuits fried in the 
 scrapings of the butter-pot ; then we began to 
 look out for the Kvik. The mouth of Kings Bay 
 was not visible from camp, so we went for walks 
 to various higher points, besides spending some 
 hours over another hunt for coal ; but neither coal 
 
RUSSIAN TRAPPERS 151 
 
 nor Kvik appeared. The drizzling night dragged 
 its slow hours along. A meagre supper in the 
 morning of the i2th was the occasion of more 
 loud lamentations from our Norwegian Jere- 
 miah. The others then turned in, whilst I 
 went off to the ruins of an old Russian hut on the 
 neighbouring cape to watch for the expected 
 steamer. 
 
 Less than a century ago there was a big winter 
 settlement of Russian trappers in and about 
 Kings Bay. As in the case of other Russian 
 settlements, there were a central house and a 
 number of outlying huts widely scattered from 
 one another. The central house of this group was 
 in Cross Bay, in Ebeltoft's Haven, I believe. The 
 Coal Haven hut was only an outlyer, inhabited 
 by a solitary individual, who at stated intervals 
 visited the central depot to leave his catch of furs 
 and renew his meagre stock of provisions. Num- 
 bers of these trappers annually died of scurvy. 
 The rock on which I sat had assuredly been wit- 
 ness to such unrecorded tragedies. There now 
 remains nothing but the ground plan of the hut, 
 with a few bits of mouldering wood and broken 
 brick lying about. There were fragments of both 
 Dutch and Russian bricks, as is not uncommon 
 on these sites, for the Russians used the remains 
 of older Dutch whaling " cookeries " in building 
 their stoves. Against a big rock was a piece 
 of stone wall and a rotting beam, apparently part 
 
152 RETURN TO KINGS BAY 
 
 of an old store-cupboard. Moss had crept up 
 over it, and little arctic flowers were growing 
 upon it with unwonted luxuriance. The bones 
 of foxes and bears were in the ground, which was 
 pervaded with corrupting wood-fibre and carpeted 
 with a peculiarly rank moss that only grows thus 
 luxuriantly on the abandoned sites of human 
 habitation. What a desolate place for a winter 
 dwelling, planted between a bog and the icy bay ! 
 Who lived here ? I asked myself. What did he 
 think about ? Were the hills anything to him 
 the Three Crowns and those other peaks rising 
 all around ? Did the beauty of the long sunset 
 heralding the arctic night find recognition in his 
 eyes ? Or was life too hard for the growth in him 
 of any sense of beauty ? Was he some poor 
 creature forced as a last resource to come here 
 for the bare means of subsistence, or some 
 criminal forcibly expatriated to these inhospitable 
 shores? Such indeed was the custom in Northern 
 Russia before Siberia came into fashion as a place 
 of exile. Long I sat, musing on these things in 
 the grey night, and listening to the far-off rumble 
 of the calving glacier. Every few minutes I 
 scanned the sea horizon off Mitra Hook, and 
 always thought I could trace the faint appearance 
 of a remote steamer's smoke. Imagination is a 
 dreadful trickster, but time always shows up its 
 character. No steamer came in sight, though the 
 appointed hour had passed. My watch completed, 
 
THE KVIK 153 
 
 I returned to camp and sent up Nielsen to look 
 out. " They haven't come/' said Svensen, " and 
 they won't come. Ikke, ikke ! We shall never get 
 away from here." This croaking raven of a man 
 began to grate upon our nerves. 
 
 In the afternoon all turned out again. No signs 
 of the Kvik. We assured one another that it was 
 of no consequence. A fire was lit, the pot set on 
 to boil and all our remaining provisions turned 
 into it. If this was to be our last meal it should 
 be as big a one as we could provide. Slowly the 
 water came to the boil, all of us anxiously and 
 greedily watching. Nielsen wandered forlornly 
 off to the point. "The Kvik, the Kvik!" he 
 shouted. " Ikke, ikke ! " said Svensen, but no one 
 heeded him ; this time there was no mistake. 
 Before our last food was swallowed she had 
 rounded into the bay and cast anchor close 
 by us. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND 
 
 ON boarding the Kvik we were again in contact 
 with the outside world. There was much to hear 
 and something to tell, so that time passed quickly. 
 Baron Bornemisza, returning from a week's cruise 
 in Wijde Bay and along the north coast, was full 
 of information about the condition of the ice in 
 that direction. It was not so open as at the same 
 time in the preceding year. Hinloopen Strait was 
 blocked about halfway down ; the Kvik had been 
 unable to reach the Seven Islands. At Advent 
 Bay we found the more boldly navigated Expres, 
 with our friend Herr Meissenbach on board, in a 
 happy and triumphant state of mind. He had had 
 the best kind of time, and enjoyed himself vastly, 
 spending three weeks in the neighbourhood of the 
 Seven Islands, and pushing as far east as Cape 
 Platen. Two bears had fallen to the rifles of the 
 party, and I know not how many seals ; now he 
 was on his way home. 
 
 That was a busy day at Advent Point, and a 
 blustery withal, for the autumnal bad weather was 
 
SPITSBERGEN TOURISTS 155 
 
 setting in. All our baggage had to be packed for 
 transfer to the Lofoten, in which we were to sail for 
 Horn Sound that evening. At the inn were 
 two Swiss artists and Professor Wiesner of 
 Vienna, come to take observations on the intensity 
 of the light. Presently a tourist steamer arrived 
 and carried the artists away. People were coming 
 and going all the time ; it was the culmination of 
 the tourist season. 
 
 I have read in the London press that Spitsbergen, 
 nowadays, is " overrun " with tourists. This is 
 far from being the case. A considerable number 
 come up with the Lofoten and other tourist ships, 
 and pay a brief visit to the west coast, but few of 
 them ever land except for an hour or two at 
 Advent Point. Apart from Herr Andree's party, 
 the only visitors who spent any time in Spits- 
 bergen this year were Baron Bornamisza and a 
 few people who made trips on the Kvik, the German 
 party who hired the Expres, and ourselves. Besides 
 Garwood and me, only Baron Bornamisza and the 
 artists made any attempt to go into the interior. 
 The Baron spent two or three days with one of 
 our tents in the Sassendal, shooting reindeer ; 
 whilst the artists dragged a little sledge a day's 
 journey into the hills west of Advent Bay, and 
 camped there for a couple of nights. So much for 
 the overrunning of Spitsbergen. The simple fact 
 is that to spend any time in the interior of the 
 island is no easier now than it was fifty years ago, 
 
156 KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND 
 
 nor is there much probability that it will become 
 easier in the immediate future. All of Spitsbergen 
 that the ordinary tourist needs to see is visible from 
 the deck of a ship, whence it can be beheld with- 
 out either labour or discomfort. To penetrate the 
 heart of Spitsbergen glaciers now involves just the 
 same kind of work that the crossing of North- 
 East Land demanded of Nordenskiold in 1873. 
 
 When the hour came for the Lofoten to sail, such 
 was the boisterousness of the embarkation that 
 some intending passengers preferred to stay 
 behind for a week rather than be soused. The 
 disturbing wind was only a local draught, such as 
 often blows down the boggy valleys of Spits- 
 bergen, and especially down the Advent Vale. 
 When we were out in the midst of Ice Fjord the 
 gale diminished to an ordinary breeze, by which 
 we were well rolled all night long off the west 
 coast. It was past noon (August 14) when the 
 Lofoten turned into Horn Sound ; she steamed 
 straight up the bay and finally came to off the 
 mouth of a small bay in the south coast, the Goose 
 Haven of the old whalers. Our whaleboat was 
 hoisted overboard, and such goods as we needed 
 for a week lowered into it. Svensen, who was to 
 be left on board, eagerly helping, and joyous to 
 see the last of the hated sledges. He said good- 
 bye to us with monstrous enthusiasm, mixed in 
 apologies for not having enjoyed our company 
 more keenly. If we would come to his home and 
 
GOOSE HAVEN 157 
 
 go a-fishing with him he assured us that we should 
 find no more active or willing companion. 
 
 The exchange from the warmth and solidity of 
 the steamer to the rawness of the foggy day and 
 the unrest of the tumbling sea was, to say the 
 least, undesirable. Our friends on board watched 
 our departure without envy, and it must be con- 
 fessed that we rowed away with little eagerness. 
 Clouds hung low and heavy upon the hills, and 
 no scene could have been more desolate. In half 
 an hour we landed on the stony beach of the east 
 shore of Goose Haven ; the Lofoten was then 
 small in the distance and just rounding out of 
 sight. There was no novelty of the unknown 
 now ahead of us. We had come to make the 
 ascent of Mount Hedgehog or Horn Sunds Tind, 
 which Garwood had almost succeeded in ac- 
 complishing just twelve months before in com- 
 pany with Trevor-Battye and a seaman. The 
 object of this repetition was to see the view from 
 the top, a hope little likely to be fulfilled in such 
 weather as was prevailing. Garwood also desired 
 to investigate certain rocks, which he thought 
 might prove interestingly fossiliferous. Save for 
 these rocks I do not think we should have come 
 to Horn Sound again. They proved to be a 
 fraud, but that was not Garwood's fault. My 
 own wish had been to spend our last week in 
 Ekman and Dickson bays for the purpose of 
 completing and joining my two maps ; but I 
 
158 KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND 
 
 could hardly expect Garwood to be eager for 
 such an arrangement, seeing that the area con- 
 tained no geological novelties for him. My 
 alternative proposition was that we should hire 
 the Kvik and make a run for Wiches Land the 
 islands approached by us the preceding year, 
 but never as yet landed on by any geologist. 
 Unfortunately, we could learn nothing of the 
 condition of the ice east of Spitsbergen, so 
 hesitated to incur a considerable expense for a 
 very problematical advantage. If only we had 
 known ! It was the one year of all recorded 
 years in which the sea to the eastward was most 
 free of ice, and, during these very days, Mr. 
 Arnold Pike was steaming round and round and 
 landing on the islands in question, where he shot 
 fifty-seven bears. 
 
 For better or worse, we had decided on Horn 
 Sound, and here we were by the resounding shore 
 of Goose Haven. There was no good landing- 
 place or protected creek for the boat. We had to 
 land on the open beach. The baggage was 
 pitched ashore and the boat completely emptied. 
 Nevertheless, our reduced strength did not avail 
 to haul it out of the water. We began to regret 
 the loss of Svensen sooner than we expected. 
 Camp having been pitched just above high-water 
 line, there was nothing for us to do on the dreary 
 shore, so we rowed across to the far point of the 
 bay Hofer Point a convenient position for my 
 
RUINED COOKERY 159 
 
 survey. Garwood, knowing the way about, 
 steered the boat into a tiny cove, whither we 
 thought of transferring camp. The change was 
 not made, fortunately, as will hereafter appear. 
 At the head of the cove are ruins of a Russian 
 settlement, on an exposed mound as usual, whilst 
 on neighbouring knolls are two groups of graves. 
 There remains also a bench in a protected corner. 
 When the miserable life lived in these remote and 
 solitary huts by most of the exiles is considered, 
 these poor benches, of which I have now seen 
 several examples, are peculiarly pathetic. Many a 
 sad hour must successive, lonely, fur-clad watch- 
 men have passed while seated upon them, 
 marking the slow passage of miserable days. 
 The sentiment of the melancholy landscape is 
 strangely enhanced by a human interest of this 
 kind, however remote. The savage regions of 
 the earth are always impressive to a spectator's 
 imagination, but they become infinitely more im- 
 pressive when they can be regarded as a theatre 
 of human suffering or endurance. 
 
 The others returned to camp by boat, whilst 
 I pursued my task and wandered home round the 
 bay's head, at first over sea-eaten rocks, afterwards, 
 when the hills receded, over boggy land between 
 the shelving beach and the iceflat at the foot of 
 the great moraine of the glacier filling the bay's 
 valley the Goose Glacier, as we afterwards called 
 it. On a mound of the bog are ruins of a con- 
 
160 KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND 
 
 siderable whalers' settlement, with quantities of 
 great bones lying about, and the inevitable group 
 of graves not far away. In the seventeenth cen- 
 tury the Horn Sound whalers were English ; in 
 fact, this was one of the largest English settlements. 
 The beach seems to have risen considerably since 
 that time, for the whales used to be flensed 
 between high and low water marks, whereas the 
 bones now lie far beyond reach of the highest 
 tides. It rained heavily as I walked on round the 
 shore and waded the streams that flow out from 
 the glacier. The clouds descended lower than 
 ever, and the gloom, if possible, increased, so 
 that the dreariness, by its very intensity becoming 
 almost novel, became also indued with the 
 pleasantness of novelty. 
 
 During our explorations of the previous year in 
 the belt of boggy interior between Advent Bay 
 and the east coast, every glacier we came across 
 had an iceflat below its snout, formed by the 
 freezing of the winter snow when impregnated by 
 water drained out of the glacier. This year we 
 had met with no examples of such iceflats before 
 this one in Goose Haven. It was of great extent 
 and evidently destined to survive the rapidly 
 departing summer, for it still averaged about six 
 feet in thickness. The glacier streams had cut 
 deep channels through it, which the first heavy 
 snowfall would easily block, again compelling 
 the water to soak into the new bed of snow and 
 
GLACIAL ICE-FOOT 161 
 
 prepare it in its turn to be frozen solid later on. 
 The intermittent thaws of spring may be more 
 effective in forming the snow-bog, which is the 
 needful preliminary condition of an ice-foot, than 
 is the autumn drainage held back by the autumnal 
 snowfall. As to this we possess no information. 
 Between the two the phenomenon is produced. 
 As a rule the summer thaw must suffice to melt 
 the ice-foot away, for, if it did not, there would be 
 a continual increase in the thickness of the ice, 
 and a kind of glacier would be formed. Of such 
 glaciers, however, we have seen no examples. 
 Though we found several cases of ice-foot appa- 
 rently destined to survive the summer, they 
 probably owed their survival either to the fact 
 that they were produced by exceptionally heavy 
 local falls of snow, or to the summer's thaw being 
 below the average in total amount. One year 
 with another, the balance of formation and thaw 
 appears to be equalised. At all events, we have 
 no evidence yet of any glacial ice-foot that steadily 
 increases. If, however, such an increasing ice- 
 foot were to arise, it would tend to bury the 
 terminal moraine and unite itself to the snout of 
 the glacier, but before the process had advanced 
 very far the surface of the ice-foot would begin 
 to acquire a slope, on which a snow-bog could 
 hardly be formed. The glacial water would be 
 drained quickly away and the conditions for further 
 increase of the ice-foot would no longer exist. 
 
 L 
 
162 KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND 
 
 Considering such questions, I dawdled about 
 on the beach and the ice, to the great disgust of 
 some glaucous gulls, who kept swooping down 
 close to my head with horrid cries. Rain falling 
 heavily did not add perceptibly to the discomforts 
 of the cold and blustery day. Near camp was 
 another ruined whalers' settlement or cookery, 
 surrounded by quantities of bleached and rotting 
 bones, and with the inevitable grave-mound close 
 by. The ruins in this case were better preserved, 
 so that their character was recognisable. A 
 whalers' cookery consisted essentially of two parts, 
 a " tent " and a cauldron. The tent was a build- 
 ing of four low stone walls roofed with sailcloth 
 passed over a ridge-pole and held down by rocks 
 round the edges. The walls of the tent are still 
 standing on a mound. Close by are the wrecks 
 of the brickwork belonging to two cauldrons for 
 boiling down blubber. Quantities of coal-slag 
 showed the nature of the fuel employed. All 
 about the ruins and amongst the bones, moss 
 was growing with the peculiar rankness already 
 mentioned as characteristic of the sites of human 
 habitation in Spitsbergen. 
 
 Rain fell steadily all night long. The tide rising 
 higher than before, banged our boat about, for all 
 we could do was to drag it as high as the waves 
 would carry it at high tide, and stand by to prevent 
 accidents till the waters had retreated again. 
 Obviously^ we must seek some better haven. 
 
INNER PART OF HORN SOUND 163 
 
 Accordingly Garwood and I set forth along the 
 shore northward to the point, and then eastward. 
 Expecting no worse trouble than rivers to cross, 
 I wore only rubber waders, and hands in pockets 
 instead of carrying an ice-axe. This was all right 
 so long as the beach lasted, but where cliffs took 
 the place of beach, difficulties arose. The slope 
 above the cliffs proved to be furrowed by couloirs 
 filled with ice. Garwood being somewhere aloft, 
 stone-breaking, I had to cross the gullies without 
 assistance. This was accomplished by a new 
 system. Having selected a couple of sharp- 
 pointed stones, like palaeolithic celts, I lay down 
 and scrambled across, digging the stones in and 
 using them as handhold. Fortunately the slope 
 was not steep. In case of a slip I should have 
 shot down the couloir fast enough, and been 
 tossed out at the foot of it over the cliff into the 
 sea. The point of the bay was reached beyond the 
 fourth of these couloirs. The view over the head 
 of Horn Sound was tolerably good, though the 
 strong cold wind made its investigation anything 
 but pleasant. The mountain-tops were hidden. 
 It is their remarkably bold forms that make fair- 
 weather views of the sound so beautiful. All the 
 glaciers, however, were clear of fog. The end of 
 the sound is filled by a very big one ; two others, 
 descending from Horn Sunds Tind, jutted out the 
 cliffs of their splintered sea-fronts between the end 
 glacier and our point, whilst a whole series of 
 
164 KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND 
 
 minor glaciers descend to, or almost to, the sea, 
 along the north shore, the principal one debouch- 
 ing into a fine bay almost opposite to us. 
 
 After taking observations at the point, I went 
 eastward along the south shore, where, above a 
 low rock wall, is a belt of fairly level ground inter- 
 vening between the sound and a grand precipice 
 that reached up into leaden clouds. A group of 
 graves was passed, near the little rock-bound cove 
 to which we afterwards moved camp. Half a mile 
 on came a remarkable assemblage of great fallen 
 rocks, looking from the distance like some ancient 
 megalithic monument. The individual rocks were 
 as big as houses ; ages ago they all fell together in 
 a mighty avalanche from the top of the neigh- 
 bouring precipice. Almost all of them have been 
 cloven in half by atmospheric denudation and 
 frost, and the clefts afford delightful scrambles. In 
 the midst of the ruin are mossy lawns, springs of 
 clear water, a few pools, and accumulations of 
 winter snow lingering in shady places. Here I 
 came up with Garwood enjoying shelter from the 
 wind in a quiet nook. The views from the tops of 
 these rocks, and from various places among them, 
 were most striking, especially when some glacier- 
 front could be caught within a framing foreground 
 of the splintered crags. We paid several visits to 
 these Stonehenge rocks, as we named them. 
 Garwood, I believe, climbed them all. Half a 
 dozen contented me. Their quaintness grew upon 
 
KITTIWAKE GLACIER 165 
 
 us. We were always finding new resemblances 
 in their queer forms. Some had almost dissolved 
 away, leaving mere pillars to represent what had 
 been mighty cubes. One such pillar looked to me 
 like an ancient Arabian bethel, but Garwood 
 called it " a ripping tombstone ;; ! 
 
 Some distance farther on came the first side 
 glacier (Kittiwake Glacier), emerging, past the end 
 of the precipice, out of a gap in the hills. Just at 
 the angle is the resting-place of innumerable 
 kittiwakes, whose cries mingled with the noise of 
 the wind. The glacier was gained above* its 
 crevassed end, after a toilsome scramble up 
 moraine. It proved to be snow-covered and full 
 of hidden crevasses. Never, I suppose, was a 
 glacier party less well provided than were we two 
 men to face such conditions. My boots had 
 slippery rubber soles ; in each of Garwood's were 
 just two nails. We had neither rope nor stick, 
 our single implement being a small geological 
 hammer. It may be imagined, therefore, that 
 our further progress was made slowly and with 
 much precaution. Ultimately we gained the 
 middle of the glacier, and saw up it to the rocks 
 of what afterwards proved to be Horn Sunds 
 Tind disappearing into cloud. A few days later 
 (iQth) we returned better equipped, but in weather 
 no wise improved. That time we crossed Kittiwake 
 Glacier to its right bank, where are the red rocks 
 which Garwood once hoped would prove to be 
 
166 KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND 
 
 Devonian. They were an utter disappointment, 
 and he turned from them in disgust. Beyond 
 came a slope of screes, and then the next and 
 smaller glacier, which likewise has a splintered 
 sea-front, almost joining that of the great Horn 
 Glacier at the head of the sound. We climbed 
 on to a commanding hummock and gazed inland. 
 Horn Glacier is wide and of gentle slope, with 
 hills of small elevation immediately north of it 
 as far as we could see. From the south it 
 receives two or three considerable tributaries, 
 divided from one another by mountain ranges of 
 decided form, whose bases alone were disclosed. 
 The island is here only about sixteen miles 
 wide. My idea was to make a dash across 
 and locate the position and direction of the 
 watershed, which is probably near the east coast, 
 but in such weather nothing could have been 
 seen. A few miles inland fog rested on the 
 snow. 
 
 The inner part of the sound and the north bay 
 were dotted over with quantities of floating ice- 
 blocks, fallen from various glacier-fronts, and 
 steadily drifting out to sea with the tide. It was 
 near midnight, and the sky was tinted with sunset 
 tones just visible through thin places in the roof 
 of cloud, as we returned to camp. Only hunger 
 reconciled us to the sight of the tents, for the sea 
 was rising with the tide, and at high water we must 
 get afloat and move away to one of the more 
 
TROUBLE WITH THE BOAT 167 
 
 sheltered places round to the east beyond the 
 point. Everything was duly packed, the boat 
 loaded, and all was ready, but we could not get 
 her afloat. Work as we might she would turn 
 broadside to the waves, and nothing would keep 
 her straight. Two oars were broken in the attempt. 
 Then we unloaded her again and tried to get her 
 off empty, but that was no easier. The weather 
 was continually worsening, and our struggles 
 became desperate ; it was all wasted labour. A 
 bigger wave than usual at last broke into and 
 filled the boat, rendering her utterly unmanage- 
 able. There was nothing for it but to unpack 
 everything and pitch camp again. The tide 
 presently going down, the boat was once more left 
 high and dry, so that at six in the morning we 
 were able to turn in. 
 
 During the night Garwood was inspired with a 
 new plan for hauling up the boat. To me it did 
 not seem promising, but, as a matter of fact, it 
 worked. Acting under his instructions, the three 
 of us set our backs under the bows and shoved 
 them transversely a few inches uphill, then 
 under the stern and did the same. The double 
 process moved her about one inch. It was 
 repeated again and again. After two hours' work 
 we had the satisfaction of seeing the boat well 
 above high-water mark. But long before the 
 time for high tide the waves, now grown large 
 and thunderous, were almost up to her, and we 
 
168 KINGS BAY TO HORN SOUND 
 
 had to go at her again as before and gain another 
 few yards. 
 
 The weather was miserable. Clouds lay almost 
 upon the water. When the tide turned we went 
 for a walk inland to the foot of Goose Glacier and 
 up its right bank, following the route by which 
 in the previous year Garwood had approached 
 the foot of Mount Hedgehog in exactly similar 
 weather. We kept on up the glacier for some 
 way, and the clouds became a little more broken 
 as the distance from the sea increased. There 
 even came a momentary hole in them, at the end 
 of which a point of rock appeared with a stone 
 man upon it. " There is the rock on which we 
 camped last year," cried Garwood, " and there's 
 the cairn we built." I only had time to identify it 
 before the fog embraced and hid it once more. 
 After that there was nothing >to be seen. Rain 
 fell, wind blew, and we turned homeward. 
 
 When the bay came in sight we perceived that 
 conditions were not improved. There was no 
 wind in Goose Haven itself, but a heavy swell was 
 coming in from the open sea, breaking right over 
 the rocks that make the little cove where we 
 landed on Hofer Point, and tossing towers of 
 spray into the air. I measured one of them by 
 comparison with the cliff beside it, and found it 
 to be fifty feet in height. A little anxious about 
 our camp and boat, we hurried down and found 
 them threatened by the inroading waves, already 
 
HEAVY SWELL 169 
 
 at half-tide reaching above the previous high-tide 
 mark. The tents were quickly moved twenty 
 yards farther inland. All the baggage was carried 
 after them, and then came another turn at the 
 boat, which was finally brought to a position of 
 safety. Long before that was accomplished the 
 place where the tents had been pitched was deeply 
 covered by the boiling surf. Drenched with rain 
 and generally disgusted, we turned in about the 
 middle of the morning of the i7th. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 AFTER breakfast in the afternoon of August 17, 
 as things looked a little better, we loaded ourselves 
 with provisions, instruments, &c., and decided to 
 make an expedition at all events to the base of 
 Mount Hedgehog, and thence perhaps back to 
 Horn Sound by way of Kittiwake Glacier. It was 
 8.30 P.M. when we set forth, all three in far from 
 hopeful humour. We retraced the steps of the 
 previous day, passing the ruined cookery, and 
 going over undulating ground and up the right 
 bank of Goose Glacier, then crossing the foot 
 of a small side glacier, which brings down a 
 moraine of grey marble streaked with pink, and so 
 reaching the open ice where Garwood's cairn 
 came into view. Last year hidden crevasses were 
 troublesome hereabouts, but there was no such 
 danger now. Crevasses were either open or 
 covered with firm roofs of frozen snow. We 
 roped, of course, but the rope was not required 
 fortunately not, for Nielsen disliked and distrusted 
 it, and would not keep it tight, ultimately refusing 
 
GOOSE GLACIER 171 
 
 to wear it any longer and preferring to go 
 detached. Give him rocks or the sea, he said ; as 
 for ice and snow he knew nothing about them, 
 and did not feel safe on them, roped or unroped. 
 Overhead was the usual roof of cloud. Gradually, 
 as we advanced and left the coast behind, we 
 perceived the roof was becoming thinner. Small 
 holes began to appear, with faint suggestions of 
 rock behind them. Our excitement increased, for 
 Garwood knew that they were the rocks of M9unt 
 Hedgehog's great precipice. Thinner and thinner 
 became the veil of mist as we walked expectant 
 over the hard-frozen neve, the mountain behind 
 becoming every moment more clearly disclosed, 
 till at last it was fully revealed to us, a glorious 
 wall of silver-dusted rock with the crimson fires of 
 heaven falling like a mantle upon it. It was about 
 midnight, two days before the sun's first setting. 
 The radiant orb was upon the north horizon, half- 
 buried in the fog above which we were rising. 
 A flood of crimson light flowed from it over all 
 mountains that rose above the clouds, so that 
 every rock was like a glowing coal, whilst the 
 snow-domes resembled silken cushions. 
 
 Now at length I realized the position and 
 nature of that Horn Sunds Tind of which I had 
 heard and read so much. It is not a peak, nor a 
 mountain, but a range of peaks running, not 
 parallel to Horn Sound, as marked on the chart, 
 but at right-angles to it and almost north and 
 
172 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 south. At the north end of the range is the 
 highest point, a needle of rock very similar to the 
 Aiguille du Dru in form. This is separated by a 
 deep depression from the larger, but, as we after- 
 wards learnt, lower, mountain-mass to which we 
 have attached the old name, Mount Hedgehog, 
 originally given to the whole range by its English 
 discoverers. Of this mass the culminating point 
 is at its south end. From it there descends to the 
 west a steep rock rib, ending below in a shattered 
 little peak, beyond which comes a snow-saddle. 
 The west ridge rises slightly again to a rock 
 mound (Bastion Point), falls to another and 
 wider snow-saddle, and is thence continued as a 
 splintered rocky range, forming the left bank of 
 the branch of Goose Glacier up which we had 
 come. It was upon an outlier of Bastion Point 
 that Garwood and his party encamped last year. 
 We found their tent-platform as fresh as if it had 
 only just been abandoned. Garwood affection- 
 ately identified the various empty tins lying about 
 and was lucky enough to find his own pocket- 
 compass uninjured where it had been forgotten. 
 In the neighbouring cairn were the records of 
 their climb, a separate one written by each 
 member of the party. 
 
 There was no doubt in our minds what next 
 thing demanded doing. We must climb the peak 
 above, while the chance offered, for the sky over- 
 head was brilliantly clear ; there was no wind and 
 
MERIDIAN ARC 173 
 
 no apparent change of weather impending. Sea, 
 shore, lowlands, and glaciers were unfortunately 
 buried beneath the floor of clouds, but all hills 
 over 1000 feet high were likely to be disclosed, so 
 that the view would be of great geographical 
 interest. Nielsen preferred not to accompany 
 our ascent, so we gave him the plane-table and 
 whatever else could not be carried further. At 
 12.30 A.M. (August 1 8) we parted in opposite 
 directions, Nielsen going back to camp, we two 
 upward to the broad snow col between Bastion 
 Point and the foot of the great west ridge. 
 
 Before describing the ascent it is advisable to 
 show the rather special importance attaching to 
 it. In the year 1823 Sir Edward (then Captain) 
 Sabine was sent to Spitsbergen and East Green- 
 land to make pendulum observations for deter- 
 mining the figure of the earth. From what he 
 observed on that brief visit he was led to con- 
 clude that Spitsbergen is a land-area excellently 
 adapted to the purpose of measuring an arc of the 
 meridian in a high latitude, a measurement which 
 would be of the- utmost value for well-known 
 scientific reasons not in this place needing dis- 
 cussion. It is enough here to say that Sabine set 
 forth his ideas in a letter (February 8, 1826) 
 addressed to Davies Gilbert, M.P., Vice- President 
 of the Royal Society. From that day to this the 
 proposal has not been lost sight of, but before an 
 elaborately accurate measurement of a line some 
 
174 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 240 miles in length could be undertaken it was 
 necessary to decide upon the various points to be 
 used for the angles of the trigonometrical net. 
 This could only be done after Spitsbergen itself 
 had been roughly surveyed. The first definite 
 step toward carrying out Sabine's project was 
 made by Professor Otto Torell,* who included in 
 the plans of the Swedish Spitsbergen expedition 
 of 1861 a reconnaissance of the meridian-arc. 
 The work was to be divided between two ships, 
 the jEolns and the Magdalena. Chydenius on the 
 JEolus was to lay out the northern part of the line 
 and select the points of observation from the 
 Seven Islands down to the south end of Hin- 
 loopen Strait, whilst Duner on the Magdalena 
 was to complete the preparations down Wybe 
 Jans Water to the South Cape. Owing to un- 
 favourable ice conditions the work could not be 
 wholly accomplished in that year. Another 
 Swedish expedition was accordingly sent out in 
 1864, under Nordenskiold's leadership, with 
 Duner to pay special attention to the geognostic 
 
 * As to the whole project, see: N. Duner and A. E. Norden- 
 skiold, Forberedande Undersokningar rorande utforbarheten af 
 en Gradmatning pa 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. 
 
MERIDIAN ARC 175 
 
 observations. The result of these efforts was the 
 suggestion of three different meridian-arcs : 
 (i) along the west coast from South Cape to 
 Vogelsang Island ; (2) down the middle of the 
 island by way of Wijde Bay, Ice Fjord, Bell 
 Sound, and Horn Sound ; (3) from Ross Island 
 (north of the Seven Islands) to the South Cape by 
 way of the east coast, Hinloopen Strait, and 
 North-East Land. The third of these was the 
 line recommended. It has, however, never been 
 run, because the sea east of Spitsbergen is 
 seldom easily navigable and the number of fine 
 days are few. Moreover, in order to link together 
 the triangles set out in Wybe Jans Water with 
 those of Hinloopen Strait, observations must be 
 made from a high hill in the midst of Garwood 
 Land close to the furthest point reached by us 
 this year from Klaas Billen Bay. Professor 
 Nordenskiold himself informed me that the 
 existence of a hill commanding the necessary 
 distant views had been to him doubtful, though 
 he believed that they had identified as one and 
 the same the apparently highest point of a range 
 of mountains seen from three different points 
 near the east coast (Svanberg, the White 
 Mountain, and Mount Loven). That such a 
 mountain does in fact exist (and even more than 
 one) was discovered and proved by us this year. 
 The surpassing eminence of Horn Sunds Tincl, 
 dominating as it does the whole southern region 
 
176 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 of Spitsbergen, visible from the west coasts of 
 Edges Land and Barents Land, and easily 
 recognisable when and whence soever seen, 
 indicated its summit as the best point for 
 observations ; but the mountain was believed 
 to be inaccessible. It was also believed that 
 other useful mountain peaks might exist in the 
 interior of the south part of the island between 
 Horn Sound and Ice Fjord, by use of which as 
 trigonometrical stations the necessity of visiting 
 ice-blocked Wybe Jans Water might be avoided. 
 One of the minor purposes of Herr Gustaf 
 Nordenskiold's expedition of 1890 was to pay 
 attention to these matters. He accordingly 
 landed in Horn Sound and made a rapid journey 
 across the glaciers and mountains between that 
 point and the so-called Recherche Bay in Bell 
 Sound.* He concluded that Horn Sunds Tind 
 and the mountains of similar structure north of 
 Horn Sound were inaccessible, and therefore 
 could not be used as trigonometrical stations. 
 Our discovery that Horn Sunds Tind is probably 
 visible from the Three Crowns added greatly to 
 its importance as a possible trigonometrical 
 station. Thus it was now become a matter of 
 unusual interest to discover a way to its 
 summit. 
 
 * A translation of his interesting account of this expedition is 
 inserted as an appendix to the present volume, by kind permission 
 of Baron Nordenskiold. 
 
BEGINNING OF THE CLIMB 177 
 
 An easy ascent up a snow incline brought us to 
 the rocks of the little peak in which the west arete 
 of Mount Hedgehog has its lower termination. 
 They are broken rocks, lying at a steep angle. 
 Deep, new, hard-frozen snow filled up their inter- 
 stices and made the ascent very laborious, though 
 quite easy. From the top of the little peak we 
 looked abroad over the sea of cloud, beneath 
 which we knew the ocean must lie, though no 
 trace of it was visible to the remotest horizon. 
 The surface of cloud was generally level but undu- 
 lating, the crests of its motionless waves dyed pink 
 by the midnight sun, the troughs filled with blue 
 shadows. Straight ahead rose the steep splintered 
 rock-ridge to the desired summit. On our right 
 of it stretched up a broad ice-couloir, narrowing 
 above to a snow-saddle close below the peak, and 
 broadening below to Hedgehog Glacier, which 
 flows almost due south to the sea, and along 
 whose left bank lie the row of lesser peaks forming 
 the continuation of Horn Sunds Tind. Last year 
 Garwood led his party up this couloir, keeping 
 close to the rocks of the arete by its right (north) 
 side. There was no better way, so we went down 
 to the col east of our little peak, and attacked 
 the snow-slope beyond, Garwood leading now 
 and throughout the ascent. 
 
 I was astonished, on approaching the couloir, 
 to hear the mountain, as it were, singing over 
 all its precipitous face. The cause of the sound 
 
 M 
 
178 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 was not apparent ; it resembled the noise of 
 waterfalls. The bonds of frost were, however, 
 strong upon the mountain and must have held 
 it for many days in a thawless grip, so that I 
 could not believe there was any water to 
 fall. Once in the couloir the mystery was ex- 
 plained. The sound arose from a cascade of 
 fragments of ice, varying in size from a nut to a 
 hen's egg. We soon found out their cause and 
 whence they came. Fine snow crystals formed 
 in upper regions of the air, so different from the 
 large flakes of lower levels, had been flung by the 
 gale upon the crags. Hour after hour and doubt- 
 less day after day the bombardment continued. 
 The flying icy dust clung to the rocks, and, being 
 constantly added to, built itself up into feathery 
 icicles pointing towards the wind. Where there 
 had been a constant eddy it was shown by the 
 changed direction of the icicles. They were only 
 an inch or two long low down, but the higher we 
 climbed the larger we found them to be, till near 
 the top they became splendid plumes eighteen 
 inches long or more and of the loveliest forms, 
 like ostrich-feathers glittering with diamond dust. 
 It was these icicles, detached from above by the 
 leverage of their overgrown length, and smashed 
 into smaller fragments as they fell, that filled the 
 air with the sibilant, rushing sound which seemed 
 like the noise of many waters. Throughout the 
 ascent we had to run the gauntlet of these missiles, 
 
CASCADE OF ICE 179 
 
 and were often hit, and hit hard, but never so 
 severely that it mattered. They were not big 
 enough to knock us out of our steps, whilst, once 
 they had taken their first bound from the rocks, 
 they kept close to the slope, so that they seldom 
 flew by at a level higher than our waists. 
 
 Last year Gar wood had escaped this particular 
 annoyance, but instead had found the couloir in 
 a rotten condition with soft snow lying upon ice, 
 so that he had to cut steps through the snow into 
 the ice from the very start. This year, the snow 
 being hard-frozen, step-cutting did not commence 
 till some way further up. Garwood started with 
 hopes that much of it might be avoided by 
 scrambling up the rocks of the arete, but the ice- 
 covering on them rendered that impracticable, or, 
 at the least, highly dangerous. Across the foot of 
 the couloir stretched two of the inevitable deep 
 crevasses or bergschrunds which every couloir 
 boasts. Under the conditions they were, of course, 
 well bridged, and presented no difficulty. Bonds 
 of frost likewise held the rocks together, so that 
 not a stone fell across the route of our ascent. In 
 warm weather, and especially after midday, falling 
 stones must be very common here, nor do I see 
 how they can be avoided, for they rake every 
 possible line of ascent. 
 
 Once really in the couloir, step-cutting became 
 necessary, at first mere slicing of the frozen snow, 
 but all too soon laborious hacking into hard blue 
 
180 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 ice. We kept close to the rocks and could some- 
 times advance a step or two by jamming the foot 
 into the crack between rocks and ice. Such relief 
 was rare. I calculated that Garwood cut altogether 
 five hundred ice-steps in the couloir. This does 
 not include snow-steps below it or on the final 
 ridge. Garwood made them small and far apart, 
 whilst I enlarged them into regular shelves to last 
 against our return. The view, when we turned 
 round to look at it in breathing intervals, was 
 restricted, for the walls of the couloir shut out 
 everything except the prospect over the cloud- 
 covered ocean, which remained from hour to hour 
 bathed in the pink light of sunset or sunrise. The 
 sun flung the blue shadow of our peak far out 
 upon the cloud-floor. When we were fairly high 
 up, the shadow of the summit became tipped with 
 red, which, as we mounted higher, developed into 
 a series of four concentric rainbows, apparently 
 lying on the clouds in the remote distance and 
 haloing the shadow of the peak. This effect, as 
 may well be believed, was remarkable enough ; but 
 even more unusual, to my eyes, was the appear- 
 ance of what I can only describe as two radiantly 
 white roads of brightness, stretching directly away 
 from us straight out to the horizon, one on either 
 side of the mountain's shadow, and each making 
 an angle of about 37, with a line from the eye to 
 the centre of the rainbows, or 143 round from the 
 sun. All the rest of the cloud-floor was still 
 
CLIMB IN THE COULOIR 181 
 
 mottled in blue and pink, though the pink was 
 now growing faint, and the general tone was 
 becoming blue-grey ; the two " roads " alone 
 were snow-white by contrast. 
 
 The higher we rose the steeper was the couloir, 
 the harder the ice, and the greater the cold. The 
 distance from the glacier below steadily increased ; 
 to look down upon it was like looking down a 
 wall. The distance to the skyline above did not 
 seem to diminish correspondingly. We came to 
 the point where Garwood had led his companions 
 on to the rocks last year. We, however, kept on 
 up the ice. Then we were level with last year's 
 highest. It had been estimated at about eighty 
 feet below the summit, as far as the fog enabled a 
 guess to be made ; now in perfectly clear air we 
 saw that very much more than eighty feet remained 
 to be climbed. A strip of rocks, above on our 
 right, descended into the couloir from the final 
 snow arete at its top. We cut a long staircase 
 diagonally across to them up a yet steeper ice-slope 
 than any before. They proved to be nothing 
 worse than rather steep screes encumbered with 
 ice. We scrambled up them to the final ridge, a 
 real knife-edge of snow of the giddiest description, 
 for on the other side the mountain wall plunged 
 vertically, as it seemed, 3000 feet down into the 
 floor of cloud below. Here we entered the sun- 
 shine, and the view toward Edges Land burst 
 upon us, but we scarcely looked at it. There was 
 
182 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 not a cloud in the sky ; we should see it better 
 from the top, and to that our attention was 
 anxiously turned. It was still 100 feet above our 
 heads. A thread-like snow-ridge of astonishing 
 delicacy led steeply up to the final tooth of rock. 
 Carefully we advanced, planting our feet on the 
 very crest of the ridge, which had to be trodden 
 down before it was broad enough to stand upon. 
 Here and there overhanging cornices had to be 
 avoided ; but only care was required, there was 
 no real difficulty. In a few minutes we touched 
 the foot of the summit rock. It was a plumb 
 vertical wall, perhaps fifteen feet high. I suppose 
 we might have climbed straight up it, but an easier 
 way was found. The rock was cloven in half from 
 top to bottom by a crack just wide enough to 
 squeeze through sideways if we expelled our breath 
 and made ourselves thin. On the other side of it 
 was a ledge giving easy access to the highest point, 
 on which we laid our hands with a great feeling of 
 joy. The ascent had taken five hours from the 
 foot of the couloir. 
 
 To express the beauty of the view that now 
 surrounded us surpasses my powers. A bare 
 statement of its character and extent is all that I 
 shall attempt to set down. The lowlands, bays, 
 and wide glaciers were alike buried beneath the 
 floor of cloud, so that much of the geographical 
 information which else might have been obtained 
 was withheld. Only in the south-east was there 
 
VIEW FROM THE TOP 183 
 
 any sea or coast-line visible, an appearance of low- 
 lying flat land, which may indeed have been merely 
 a shadow upon water. The whole of Edges 
 Land was in cloud, but Barents Land was sharp 
 and clear, with all its peaks quite distinct and easy 
 of identification, had one but known what to 
 identify. Here, too, the waters of Wybe Jans 
 Water were disclosed with the sunshine lying 
 brightly upon them, and the long east coast of 
 Spitsbergen leading in that direction. Everywhere 
 else were only peaks rising like golden islands out 
 of a silver sea. A row of such, the tops of a range 
 of hills, ran close by us down the middle of the 
 land towards the South Cape. In the north was 
 a chaos of peaks, those near at hand lying in north 
 and south rows, but the remoter ones dotted about 
 on no discoverable plan. We identified the peaks 
 about Bell Sound, and Mount Starashchin at the 
 mouth of Ice Fjord, but of hills more remote we 
 could be sure of none. So much for the distance 
 and background of the view ; its great glory, how- 
 ever, was in the craggy ridge of Horn Sunds Tind 
 itself, along which we looked both to north and 
 south. Southward it sank rapidly, but in the 
 opposite direction it reared itself into successive 
 jagged peaks rising out of a narrow zigzag ridge 
 of precipitous rock. Alas ! we were not on the 
 highest point ; that was now seen to be the 
 splendid needle further north, divided from Mount 
 Hedgehog by a deep gap, and perhaps surpassing 
 
184 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 it in height by as much as forty feet. All the 
 rocks of this glorious ridge were covered with 
 ice-feathers, whereon the sun shone with great 
 brilliancy, whilst a bold shadow clothed the whole 
 west face of the mountain. The zigzagging of 
 the ridge brought the bright and shadowed sides 
 into alternate prominence, and led the eye agree- 
 ably along to the sudden jut of the culminating 
 needle. How beautifully this wonderful group 
 of bold, snow-decked crags was enframed by 
 the bright effulgence of the cloudy sea and 
 its emergent islands any one can imagine better 
 than I can say. The effect on the spectator was 
 heightened by the sense of standing high and 
 alone, for, save along the knife-edged ridge, the 
 mountain fell from our feet with such utter abrupt- 
 ness as to seem everywhere vertical, so that we 
 had the sensation of looking from a balloon rather 
 than of standing upon the solid earth. 
 
 We now observed that a very fine range of peaks, 
 striking inland northward from the west side of 
 Horn Sound's north bay, is the orographical con- 
 tinuation of Horn Sunds Tind, the sound itself 
 having been cut right through this ridge. No 
 visitor to Horn Sound can fail to notice the 
 remarkable end peak of this ridge, which rises 
 from the sea, a rock-blade of the narrowest 
 description, one side very steep, the other plumb- 
 vertical. Numberless birds nest in the lower part 
 of its cliffs, inaccessible alike to men and foxes. 
 
THE DESCENT 185 
 
 Tearing ourselves away from the summit and 
 its entrancing view, when at last we were almost 
 frozen stiff, we retreated a few yards down 
 the east face into a little hollow, sheltered from 
 the wind and open to the tepid sun. There a 
 frugal luncheon was eaten and pipes duly smoked, 
 and there we left our cards in a crack, for there 
 were no loose stones out of the snow wherewith 
 to build a cairn, nor, if there had been any, was 
 there room enough on the summit for a cairn to 
 stand. In such raw atmosphere, however, motion 
 is needful for enjoyment, so that neither of us was 
 unwilling to commence the descent. Garwood's 
 notion of traversing the whole length of Mount 
 Hedgehog's summit-ridge to its north end and 
 descending by another west arete from that point 
 was silently abandoned. With the mountain in 
 good condition it might be accomplished and 
 enjoyed, but the iced rocks made the attempt not 
 worth consideration. By the way that we came 
 up by the same must we return. 
 
 Trotting down the arete to the top of the ice- 
 covered screes was easy enough, but from that 
 point the greatest care was required. Both of us 
 afterwards confessed that we looked forward with 
 trepidation to the descent of these screes, for they 
 were very steep, very loose, and slippery with 
 powdered uncompacting ice. Descents, however, 
 are generally worse in prospect than in actuality, 
 and this was no exception. We hardly realised 
 
186 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 where the bad place was till it had been passed ; 
 but at the foot of the rocks there lurked a quite 
 unforeseen perplexity. Our beautiful ice-staircase 
 had so completely disappeared that for some time 
 we could not discover its position. The steep 
 snow-covered ice-slope was absolutely smooth. 
 No visible inequality broke the evenness of its 
 white surface. With some difficulty I found our 
 old footsteps on the rocks. Standing in them and 
 leaning downward, whilst Garwood held the rope, 
 I probed in all directions for the topmost ice-step. 
 It seemed as though an entirely new staircase would 
 have to be cut. But at last luck revealed the 
 missing hole, which, like all the rest below, was 
 filled up and smoothed over by snow-dust and ice- 
 fragments that had fallen into it. I cleared it out 
 and began the descent. The next step was 
 similarly masked and had to be sought and 
 cleared, though, of course, its position was more 
 easily found. The steps, having been cut as far 
 apart as we could stride, were difficult to reach 
 down to, nor did we venture to tread down a 
 pace till the exact position of the foothold had 
 been discovered. Sometimes new steps had to 
 be cut because the old ones were beyond reach of 
 the axe. It was interesting work which prevented 
 the return from being monotonous, but rendered 
 progress rather slow. When the bergschntnd was 
 approached difficulties were at an end. We 
 looked back and found the summit again enve- 
 
ALPINE PARALLEL 187 
 
 loped in cloud, whilst the sea-fog below was 
 steadily rising. Before we had quitted the rocks 
 of the peaklet at the foot of the ridge we were 
 well into the dense mist, where, in a few yards, we 
 promptly lost our way and had to appeal to the 
 compass for direction. Garwood's cairn was 
 reached a few minutes later, and our remaining 
 provisions were consumed under its shelter. The 
 descent to camp was without incident. Tired 
 and hungry, we reached it after an absence of 
 fourteen hours, and were delighted to find that 
 the violence of the waves had abated. 
 
 It may be of interest to Alpine climbers to 
 compare this ascent with that of some known 
 peak in the Alps. The height of the mountain 
 from the foot of the glacier is about 4500 feet. 
 From the bergschrund at the foot of the couloir 
 to the top is about 3000 feet. The ascent, there- 
 fore, from the point where the climb commences 
 is somewhat longer than, and happens to be very 
 similar in character to, the corresponding part of 
 the ascent of the Aiguille Verte* in the Mont Blanc 
 range, made by way of the south-east couloir. 
 Horn Sunds Tind, indeed, may be compared in 
 other respects with the Verte group. Mount 
 Hedgehog represents the Verte itself, the west 
 arete corresponds to the Moine ridge, whilst the 
 highest northern needle resembles the Dru, both 
 
 * The summit of the Aiguille Verte is 3700 feet above the 
 Jar din. 
 
188 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 in position and in form. Some day, no doubt, it 
 will be climbed, though I scarcely think Garwood 
 and I shall return to climb it. Horn Sound 
 appears to be a bad weather region, and we have 
 had enough of its inhospitable shores. 
 
 About 7.30 P.M., after a good sleep, we awoke to 
 find the most glorious drama of colour playing 
 for us upon the sound. Already, through ten 
 hours of every night, when thin clouds covered 
 the sky, marvellous long-drawn-out sunset effects 
 brooded over the southern extremity of Spits- 
 bergen. Day by day they were creeping further 
 north, heralds of the long winter night. What 
 we saw that evening was no ordinary sunset of 
 the temperate regions merely extended in dura- 
 tion, but such a sombre splendour as might fitly 
 usher in the fiery consummation of the world. 
 The hidden sun, level with a low, thin roof of 
 cloud, shone both upon its upper and lower 
 surfaces, painting the under-side a ruddy brown. 
 Peculiar and unexpected reflections made lights 
 in strange places. The mountains were dark 
 chocolate or rich purple in colour. Lighter 
 chocolate were the glaciers. The fjord was dark- 
 green, shot with pink reflections from above. 
 Away beyond the sea was a belt of clear sky 
 beneath the cloud-roof. Overhead, pink clouds, 
 rent and twisted by some high gale, writhed in 
 an island of blue in the upper regions of the 
 air. New snow whitened the lower hill-slopes. 
 
CAMP MOVED 189 
 
 Chilly blasts came and passed, telling of the 
 winter that was at hand. 
 
 Late in the evening we breakfasted and packed 
 up camp. Soon after midnight the boat was 
 easily launched in the calm bay. It was our 
 intention to row to the far side of the head of 
 the sound, where there were rocks that Garwood 
 thought might prove worth examination. No 
 sooner, however, was the point of Goose Bay 
 rounded than a strong wind from the north-east 
 met us, against which we could not make head- 
 way. Close at hand was a little cove, well pro- 
 tected by rocks, and there we were compelled to 
 land, just forty-eight hours before the steamer 
 was to call and fetch us away. 
 
 The doings of these two days are not worth 
 record. They were a time of low clouds and 
 frequent heavy rains. No exploration could be 
 done, because nothing could be seen. We made 
 useless expeditions to Kittiwake Glacier ; we 
 scrambled among the Stonehenge Rocks, and 
 otherwise killed time. Thick clouds and the 
 dipping sun made the nights so dark that candles 
 had to be burnt in the tent during several hours. 
 The sea became quite calm ; birds seemed to 
 increase in numbers upon the water, as though 
 they were gathering in Horn Sound for their 
 southern flight, just as the whaling fleet in old 
 days used to gather either here or in Bell 
 Sound. 
 
190 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 Early on the morning of the 2ist, Nielsen 
 called us with news that the Lofoten was in sight. 
 To pack our baggage and launch the boat was 
 the work of a few minutes. We rowed out to the 
 steamer, which took us and our goods on board 
 and promptly headed away for the open sea and 
 the south. As Horn Sound was quitted, the 
 weather temporarily improved. For a moment 
 the clouds broke or lifted, and showed us, for the 
 first time, all the height and width of Horn Sunds 
 Tind a sight to us most interesting, but not 
 specially impressive in the dull illumination that 
 prevailed. We passed the South Cape at sunset 
 and enjoyed one memorable last look along the 
 west coast, whose peaks and promontories were 
 visible as far away as the Dead Man at the mouth 
 of Ice Fjord. The northern horizon behind them 
 was striped with ruddy and golden radiance. 
 The under side of the everlasting cloud-roof was 
 strangely illuminated with delicate pink light, 
 reflected up to it from the white surface of the 
 interior of Spitsbergen, upon which the low sun 
 contrived to cast its rays just below the northern 
 edge of the cloud-cap an effect I have never 
 before observed. I have several times seen the 
 underside of Spitsbergen's cloud-roof shining 
 pink, and always supposed that it reflected direct 
 sunshine ; but probably in such cases a pre- 
 liminary upward reflection of the light from a 
 snowfield may be assumed. 
 
BEAR ISLAND 191 
 
 Our voyage was delightfully calm. We saw 
 many whales and hundreds of seals in schools, 
 especially near Bear Island, north-west of whose 
 south point we cast anchor for a few hours in 
 the afternoon of the 22nd. The top of Mount 
 Misery was buried in a soft grey cloud, but the 
 splendid cliffs below were close at hand, with 
 pillared rocks jutting out of the sea at their feet. 
 A heavy swell broke upon the barren island, 
 casting towers of spray aloft. Off shore blew 
 a stiff local breeze that made landing a wet and 
 laborious process, for it was only just possible to 
 row against it. Every one who landed returned 
 to the ship drenched to the skin. 
 
 A few miles away from Bear Island the wind 
 dropped and the sea was calm. From hour to 
 hour the temperature rose, so that those of us who 
 had spent any length of time in Spitsbergen felt 
 that we were coming into luxurious and almost 
 tropical latitudes. About sixty miles north of the 
 North Cape two ships under full sail came in 
 sight far away over the calm sea. They were 
 bound from Arkangel, laden with timber for 
 English ports. When they had been left behind, 
 the hills of Norway appeared along the southern 
 horizon. Their low line gradually rose from the 
 bosom of the waters as we approached. The sun 
 foundered into the sea about nine o'clock, just 
 when our ship passed under the North Cape's 
 beetling cliff and rounded into the sheltered 
 
192 ASCENT OF MOUNT HEDGEHOG 
 
 eastern bay, where is a little landing-stage at 
 the foot of a zigzag path leading up a gully 
 to the plateau above. Bay and gully were 
 shrouded in the gloom of evening, but the air was 
 warm and rich with the smell of the land. We 
 rowed ashore, a motley international company. 
 Something like a race was started for the summit 
 of the Cape, which is about 1000 feet above sea- 
 level and a long distance from the landing-place. 
 I see that Badeker gives seventy minutes for a 
 rational ascent ; we most irrationally did it in 
 twenty-eight. It was a merry party that gathered 
 on the top Belgians, Poles, Hungarians, Swedes, 
 English, Norwegians, men of science, seamen, 
 travellers. Nansen's Fmm crew were represented 
 by three of its members, including the laughter- 
 loving giant, Peter Hendriksen, every one's butt 
 and playfellow. Bottles were uncorked, and their 
 contents shared round. Rocks were prized down 
 the cliffs. It was a gay hour. Though heated 
 by the uphill race, we could sit without chill on 
 the exposed promontory ; for the air to us was 
 full of southern warmth, and felt like the air of 
 hot Italian valleys to a man descending into 
 them from the Alps. 
 
 The party soon dispersed, and I found a 
 secluded corner, under the very point, with the 
 northern ocean below. " In such moments Soli- 
 tude is invaluable ; for -who would speak, or be 
 looked on, when behind him lies all Europe and 
 
THE NORTH CAPE 193 
 
 Africa, fast asleep, except the watchmen ; and 
 before him the silent Immensity, and Palace of 
 the Eternal " thus thought Teufelsdrokh, as he 
 stood on this particular spot one June midnight, 
 clothed in his " light-blue Spanish cloak" and 
 looking "like a little blue Belfry." "Silent 
 Immensity and Palace of the Eternal !" the 
 words are not too strong for the wonder of that 
 view. There was no midnight sun to look upon ; 
 a spot of brightness in the midst of the orange 
 and crimson north showed where, far beneath the 
 horizon, it was looking abroad over the cloud- 
 covered arctic world. The delicate crescent of 
 the new moon beamed not far away, with a single 
 planet near it. Straight from my feet plunged 
 the splendid cliff to the measureless stretch of 
 the Arctic Sea. In the east, air, ocean, and 
 clouds merged together in a harmony of tender 
 violet, so soft, so rare of tint, that the eye, once 
 turned thither, was loath to wander again. A 
 faint low promontory of land, dividing sky from 
 sea, lured the fancy onward to the regions of 
 romance Novaja-Zemlja, the Kara Sea, and the 
 way of the North-East Passage. Not thitherward 
 was our way, but home. By noon we were again 
 in Hammerfest. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ON THE USE OF SKI 
 
 SINCE Nansen published his book, "The First 
 Crossing of Greenland/' the English public has 
 known of ski and their use. Ski (pronounced shee) 
 are Norwegian snowshoes, now admitted to be the 
 best form of snowshoe in the world. They are 
 long, narrow planks for fastening one under each 
 foot, so as to distribute over an area of soft snow, 
 many times larger than the area of the foot, the 
 weight of a man walking. They not only prevent 
 him from sinking into the snow, but, if it is in suit- 
 able condition, they enable him to slide along on 
 its surface. The common idea in England is that 
 the art of using ski is very difficult of acquisition. 
 This, as I shall show, is a mistake. No doubt the 
 almost miraculous expertness attained by the best 
 Norwegian and Swedish skisters (to coin a needed 
 word) is beyond reach of ordinary Englishmen, 
 who take to the sport when they are full grown 
 and have rare opportunities for practising it. But 
 for purposes of mere travel far less skill is required. 
 In fact, it is with skiing as it is with skating. 
 
SKI FOR EXPLORERS 195 
 
 Any person, with normal habits of exercise and 
 control over his limbs, can learn to skate in a few 
 days well enough to go straight ahead over good 
 ice at a tolerable pace. Within a fortnight of his 
 putting on skates for the first time, he might go 
 a-touring along frozen Dutch canals without being 
 much, if anything, of a hindrance to a companion, 
 the most expert of figure-skaters. To pass the 
 St. Moritz test as a figure-skater takes months or 
 even years of practice, but that is to learn the art, 
 not the mere craft of skating. So it is with skiing. 
 The artist skister can race down steep slopes at an 
 appalling velocity, leaping drops or crefts of almost 
 incredible dimensions. A traveller who needs 
 ski for the purpose of exploring the great snowy 
 areas of the world has no occasion to acquire 
 skill of that pre-eminent character. He is not 
 called upon to advance faster than a sledge can be 
 dragged by men or dogs, as the case may be, and 
 that he can learn to accomplish in a very short 
 time. Sliding downhill is a little more difficult ; 
 but any climber, who can make standing glissades 
 with facility, soon learns to glissade on ski down 
 any ordinary slope of snow. 
 
 When Garwood and I landed in Norway last 
 year, we had never seen a pair of ski, and did not 
 know where to buy or how to choose them. 
 During the summer we travelled over 150 miles 
 on ski, dragging our sledges behind us. Later on 
 we went to Stockholm and saw all manner of ski 
 
196 ON THE USE OF SKI 
 
 in the Exhibition there, and availed ourselves of 
 every opportunity that came in our way to obtain 
 information about ski and everything connected 
 with them. We soon learnt that there are ski of all 
 sorts and kinds. They differ in the material of 
 which they are made, and they differ in form. I 
 am told that ash is the best material to make them 
 of. The points to be seen to are the straightness 
 of the grain and the absence of knots. Lightness 
 is less important for a traveller than strength. 
 
 The questions of form and size are determined 
 by the purpose for which the ski are to be used. 
 Speaking generally, narrow ski are faster than 
 broad of the same area. In soft snow, however, 
 the advantage vanishes, for narrow ski sink in 
 more deeply than broad ; indeed, for very soft 
 snow, ski require to be both broad and long. The 
 edges and the hinder ends may be either rounded 
 or cut off square. For hill climbing it is certain 
 that the squarer the angle of section of edges and 
 hinder ends the better, seeing they take a better 
 hold of the snow, and prevent sliding sideways or 
 backwards ; sharp edges also make steering easier 
 on hard snow. Relatively short, broad ski, are 
 best for hill climbing, and, in general, for the work 
 of a traveller. They are easier to advance on, 
 easier to steer, and easier to turn round with. 
 Their length may be anything from two to one 
 and a half metres, two metres for choice ; they 
 should measure eight centimetres at the narrowest 
 
TELEMARK SKI 197 
 
 part under the foot, increasing forward to from 
 nine to ten centimetres at the broadest part, just 
 where the toe of the ski begins to turn up. The 
 front ends should be well turned up, the points 
 being raised from twelve to fifteen centimetres 
 above the level of a horizontal plane on which the 
 ski stand. Such ski are of the Telemark type, and 
 can be bought under the name " Telemark ski," 
 from the Scandinavian manufacturers. A good 
 pair, made of selected ash, costs about fifteen 
 shillings. 
 
 The most important matter for a novice is to 
 learn how best to attach his ski to his feet. There 
 are various ways in which this can be done. In 
 all alike the attachment is such that the foot can 
 be freely bent and the heel raised, while the fore 
 part of the foot is kept firmly in contact with the 
 ski. The roughest attachment is a mere loop or 
 strap of leather, fastened to the two sides of the 
 ski, and gripping the front part of the foot. This, 
 however, permits the foot to wobble, a most dis- 
 agreeable condition for a beginner. Such fasten- 
 ings were all that Nielsen and Svensen used, and 
 they seemed quite comfortable with them. The 
 common binding, and the best for a traveller, is 
 more complicated. The broad strap, going over 
 the fore part of the foot, is divided longitudinally 
 on each side about the level of the sole. Through 
 the two loops thus formed there passes a stout 
 piece of cane covered with leather, the middle of 
 
198 ON THE USE OF SKI 
 
 which goes round the back of the foot near the 
 heel, whilst the two ends are brought forward 
 and drawn together in front of the toe, where 
 they are fastened down firmly to the wood of the 
 ski. This fastening has to be adjustable, so that 
 the cane loop may be drawn close against the 
 heel. There are several sorts of adjustment ; 
 one is shown in the illustration. Another, per- 
 
 haps better, is a kind of vice that opens and 
 shuts by a screw ; it grips the two ends well and 
 enables either of them to be pushed forward 
 ahead of the other. A small strap, sewn on to 
 the back of the boot, low down, holds the cane 
 in place. The same result may be less well 
 attained by using an additional strap that passes 
 both under and above the instep, and is sewn on 
 both sides to the leather covering of the cane. 
 This form of attachment is usually employed by 
 winter skisters in the Alps. For advancing over 
 level ground, all the fastenings may be loose ; 
 but for hill climbing they need to be tight, so that 
 the feet are firmly attached to the ski and can 
 direct them with certainty. Beginners will certainly 
 
FOOTGEAR 199 
 
 find tightly-attached ski much easier than loose to 
 walk or glissade on. 
 
 The next question is that of footgear. For 
 moderate cold, such as you meet with in summer 
 in the arctic regions, ordinary climbing boots do 
 well enough ; but leather Lapp shoes are better. 
 These seem to be known by different names. I 
 
 find them called " pjaxa-schuhe " in a Swedish- 
 German catalogue, which mentions two qualities, 
 Norrbotten (price 8s. 6d.), and Norwegian (price 
 148. 6d.). A particular kind of band is made, 
 called a pjaxband, a kind of putti, for winding 
 round the top of the boot to keep out snow. 
 
 Within these leather boots thick goathair stock- 
 ings should be worn. So far as I know, they can 
 only be purchased in Norway and Sweden, the 
 price varying according to the length. For very 
 great cold, such as that of arctic winter, shoes of 
 reindeer fur, stuffed out with hay, are required. 
 The adjustment of ski to these is a less simple 
 
200 ON THE USE OF SKI 
 
 matter, for if the hay is badly packed the cane is 
 likely to rub against the heel and produce a 
 painful raw. 
 
 One more part of the equipment for skiing 
 has yet to be mentioned. It is the staff. Racing 
 skisters use two sticks, one in each hand, but for 
 glissading the two have to be held together like 
 a single staff. To facilitate this, there are specially 
 constructed staves made to fit together. The 
 ordinary ski-staff is provided with a kind of plate 
 near the spike, to prevent the point penetrating 
 too far into soft snow, and to give resistance for 
 a push off. Travellers using ski in mountain 
 regions will probably find it best to carry an 
 ordinary ice-axe and make shift with it. An axe 
 is far less convenient than a longer bamboo staff, 
 for mere purposes of skiing, but its other uses, 
 when ski are laid aside on steepening slopes where 
 real climbing is required, overbalance its obvious 
 defects. It would be easy to devise some form 
 of small, circular plate to slip over the point of 
 the axe a little way up the stick, and wedge there, 
 quickly removable when the axe is required for 
 step-cutting. 
 
 The skister's equipment is really simple 
 enough, but its various parts are not easily 
 purchasable in England. The following manu- 
 facturers of ski showed exhibits at the Stockholm 
 Exhibition of 1897 : Helmer Langborg, 6 Birger- 
 Jarlsgatan- Stockholm (who also sells the various 
 
SKI MANUFACTURERS 201 
 
 kinds of boots, goathair stockings, gloves, 
 pjaxbands, &c.) ; L. H. Hagen & Co., of 
 Christiania ; L. Torgensen & Co., of Christiania 
 (who also make arctic sledges) ; Langesund 
 Skifabrik, Langesund, Norway (a very good 
 exhibit) ; Fritz Huitfeldt, of Christiania (gold 
 medal at the principal Norwegian show for ski). 
 I give this list of names quite ignorantly, just 
 as I copied them down. I have no knowledge 
 about the estimation in which they are held, 
 their relative expensiveness, or anything else 
 concerning them. One or two of these firms 
 issue priced catalogues, which, I suppose, may be 
 obtained on application. Ski are also made and 
 sold in Austria ; they will be found advertised in 
 the publications of the German and Austrian 
 Alpine Club. Ski of this make are sold in winter 
 at the chief Alpine centres, but they are very 
 inferior to ski of Scandinavian manufacture. 
 
 Little need be said about how to learn the use 
 of ski, but one or two hints, even from so poor a 
 performer as the present writer, may be sug- 
 gestive to an absolute novice. The first 
 desideratum is to fasten the ski properly to the 
 feet, so that the boards run truly with the feet, 
 not with an independent motion of their own. 
 The trouble at first is to keep the two ski con- 
 stantly parallel with one another, and in the 
 direct line of advance. People whose habit is 
 to turn out their toes in walking, however 
 
202 ON THE USE OF SKI 
 
 slightly, will find themselves constantly impeded 
 by that trick. To keep the ski parallel, the feet 
 must be parallel. The motion is not one of 
 walking but of shuffling. The ski are not raised 
 from the ground, but merely pushed forward, the 
 knees being kept bent, and the action resembling 
 a sort of easy run. If the snow is in good 
 condition, the ski will slide forward a little at the 
 end of each step. The use of a staff or a pair of 
 staves is to prolong the distance of this sliding. 
 If a staff is used it is grasped in both hands and 
 thrust into the snow on one side every time the 
 foot on that side is advanced. If two staves are 
 used, one in each hand, each is thrust back (like 
 a walking-stick) against the snow, turn about, the 
 left when the left foot is advanced, and vice versa. 
 Another way is to take three quick steps and to 
 thrust with both staves at the moment of the 
 fourth step. Yet another trick is to thrust with 
 both staves at every third step ; this changes the 
 foot each time, but is more difficult. About four 
 miles an hour is an average kind of pace on the 
 flat with fairly good snow. Fifty kilometres in 
 4h. 2om. i7.5sec. was, I believe, the record for 
 flat racing two or three years ago. 
 
 The ascent of hills on ski involves new pro- 
 blems. If the snow be soft enough for the ski to 
 sink into it about half-an-inch, and if the slope be 
 gentle, there is no difficulty in walking straight 
 up. If the slope gradually and steadily steepens, 
 
UPHILL 203 
 
 there will come a point at which the ski no longer 
 hold, but slide backward when the weight of the 
 body is thrown upon them. The beginner must 
 then zigzag, pressing the edge of the ski into the 
 slope but, otherwise advancing as on the flat. 
 This is easy enough ; the trouble comes at the 
 angles of turning, where his legs are almost sure 
 to slide asunder, or he will tread with one ski on 
 the other. In turning round, even on the flat, it 
 is at first no easy matter to avoid fastening one 
 ski down by treading on it with the other. You 
 should begin turning by moving the foot which is 
 on the side towards which you are going to turn ; 
 keep the legs well apart and make the rear ends 
 of the ski the approximate centre of rotation. In 
 turning round on a hillside it is easier to turn 
 with the face, rather than the back, towards the 
 hill. Another way of walking uphill in suitably 
 soft snow is to turn the toes well out and lift each 
 ski over the other ; this is more difficult than zig- 
 zagging. In very steep places neither method 
 can be applied ; you have to advance sideways 
 with the ski kept horizontal, an easy but slow 
 method of progression. 
 
 Downhill the real fun begins, and the difficulty 
 of maintaining the balance becomes serious. The 
 weight must be thrown forward, the knees kept 
 bent, and the staff, or pair of staves held as one, 
 used as in glissading. The ski must be kept 
 strictly parallel and close together, with one foot 
 
204 ON THE USE OF SKI 
 
 a little in advance of the other. The problem is 
 to adjust the balance to every varying degree of 
 slope and alteration in the slipperiness of the 
 snow. Such alterations have to be foreseen and 
 prepared for. The beginner must expect to fall 
 often on hands and knees and to sit down with 
 undesirable frequency when he leasts expects. He 
 will find it much easier to fall than to rise again. 
 He should practice glissading on a gentle slope, 
 then on a steeper. Slopes that he finds too steep 
 for direct descent can be negotiated by zigzags, 
 but much time will be lost at the turns. 
 
 Whether ski could be advantageously used in 
 summer in the Alps is doubtful. The ascent, 
 still more the descent, of Mont Blanc between the 
 Grands Mulcts and the Vallot Hut would certainly 
 be facilitated by them, but they are unsuitqd even 
 for a broad snow-arete. Agreeable, however, as ski 
 would be on any snowfield, and valuable as a 
 protection against concealed crevasses, they are 
 far too heavy to be carried by a mountaineering 
 party for incidental use. Still they might be 
 employed with advantage in certain places. For 
 example, if a party of climbers were to make the 
 Concordia Hut the centre for a week's climbing, 
 they could not do better than provide themselves 
 with ski. Thus equipped, all the surrounding 
 mountains, anywhere between the Lotschenlucke 
 and the Oberaarjoch, would be brought within 
 their easy reach. The new Monte Rosa Hut 
 
SKI IN THE ALPS 205 
 
 would likewise be an excellent ski centre, and so 
 would the Becher Hut by the Ubelthal Glacier in 
 the Stubai Mountains of Tirol. For winter 
 climbing in the Alps ski have already established 
 their utility. I understand that several of the 
 easy Oberland passes, such as the Strahleck, have 
 been crossed on them, whilst at lower levels their 
 value is even more obvious. Whether ski-running 
 will ever attain in western and central Europe the 
 rank as a sport which it holds in Norway and 
 Sweden is a question that only the future can 
 decide. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 BEFORE taking leave of the reader it seems 
 advisable to indicate briefly the general geo- 
 graphical results of our two seasons of explora- 
 tion 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 Nordenskiold'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 descrip- 
 tive 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 
 
INLAND-ICE 207 
 
 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 essen- 
 tially vague, should, I think, be erased from geo- 
 graphical 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 neces- 
 sary 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 dis- 
 covery of this fact is the principal geographical 
 result of our second expedition. That it is a not 
 unimportant result I now proceed to demon- 
 strate. 
 
 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 
 
208 GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 land-ice does not so operate upon its bed, but, be- 
 yond 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 dis- 
 tinguishing 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 con- 
 dition, 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 
 
ALPINE EXAMPLES 209 
 
 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 approxi- 
 mately 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,* 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 Dorees ; whilst its right bank was 
 approximately coincident with the modern water- 
 shed as far as Mont Dolent, except between Mont 
 Blanc de Courmayeur and the Tour Ronde, where 
 it has been denuded away. This ancient drainage 
 
 * Herr Imfeld's new map is the best on which to examine 
 this theory. 
 
 O 
 
210 GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 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'Argentiere, 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 
 Grunhornliicke and the Lotschenliicke and down 
 the Lotschenthal. 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 approxi- 
 mating 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 
 
EATING-BACK RIVERS 
 
 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, dis- 
 charged 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, 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 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 debris fall upon the glaciers 
 below, and are carried away. If there were no 
 glaciers in this position, the debris 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 debris 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, be- 
 
EATING-BACK GLACIERS 213 
 
 coming in time a tributary valley. Of such valley 
 heads which have crept back into the plateau we 
 saw several examples ; one in particular I remem- 
 ber 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 neve 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 nuna- 
 tak near our farthest point in Garwood Land was 
 produced in this manner. 
 
 Keenly possessed by the memory of these phe- 
 nomena, I went recently to Grindelwald, and was 
 immediately struck by the resemblance in character 
 between the great bluffs of the Bernese Ober- 
 land 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 excava- 
 tion not having been accomplished by the grind- 
 ing action of glaciers pushing forward and filing 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 down their beds, but by the action, first, of torrents, 
 before the plateau was elevated above the snow- 
 line, afterwards of glaciers ; both torrents and 
 glaciers creeping backwards at their heads, where 
 faces of rock are exposed to rapid atmospheric 
 denudation, and the debris 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 Monch. 
 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 neve 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 
 
THE GREAT ALETSCH GLACIER 215 
 
 rocks of the north face of the ridge between the 
 Jungfrau and Monch 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 pro- 
 cess 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 Lotschen 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 cul- 
 minating 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 
 Lotschen Glacier.* The snout of the Lotschen 
 Glacier was thus disconnected from its former neve, 
 and a pass (the Lotschenliicke) was formed be- 
 tween them. The neve, 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 ori- 
 ginal glacier. It no doubt deepened and widened 
 
 * The Walliser Viescher Glacier was similarly employed. 
 
216 GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 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 
 n&vl 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 
 
SPITSBERGEN GEOGRAPHY 217 
 
 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 denuda- 
 tion 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 east- 
 ward the mountains become generally more 
 rounded, till the original plateau-form, and even 
 parts of the undenuded plateau itself, are encoun- 
 tered. 
 
 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 
 speciallly 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 
 
218 GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 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 snow- 
 field, 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 rc^W-valleys, the chief of which 
 discharge themselves towards Ekman and Dick- 
 son 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 
 
SPITSBERGEN GEOGRAPHY 219 
 
 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 amongt 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 ice- 
 sheet 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 Norden- 
 skiold 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. 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 The neck of Spitsbergen, which may be denned 
 as bounded on the north by a line from the mouth 
 of Nordenskiold 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 moun- 
 tain 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 direc- 
 tions 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 
 
SPITSBERGEN GEOGRAPHY 
 
 of Low Sound. Then the undulating country be- 
 gins. 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 prolonga- 
 tion of Low Sound, which was known to the 
 Dutch as Michiel Hinders 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 targe glaciers debouch together. 
 One of these probably connects by a high snow- 
 field 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 ex- 
 plored in 1897 by Mr. Victor Gatty,* who found 
 it to consist of a ring of snowy mountains sur- 
 rounding the neve of the Fox Glacier, which 
 discharges into the so-called Recherche Bay. A 
 gap or col, south-east of Dunder Bay, separates 
 * Alpine Journal, vol. xviii., p. 501. 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 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 water- 
 shed. 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 water- 
 shed, 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 Nordenskiold'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 re- 
 cent times. 
 
 In the sea east of Spitsbergen are two islands 
 whose existence has long been known. They 
 
THE SMALL ISLANDS 
 
 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.* 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 practi- 
 cally 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 
 
 * Vide Geographical Journal, 1898. 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 
 
 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. 
 
FAREWELL. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 ACCOUNT OF HERR G. NORDENSKIOLD'S TRA- 
 VERSE OVER THE GLACIERS FROM HORN 
 SOUND TO BELL SOUND IN 180.* 
 
 June I5th, 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 
 
 * Translated by the Rev. E. Shepherd from Herr G. Norden- 
 skiold's paper, Redogonlse for den Svenska Expeditionen till Spets- 
 bergen 1890, published in Bihang till K. Svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. 
 Bd. 17, Afd. 2, No. 3, pp 10-17. 
 
 p 
 
226 APPENDIX 
 
 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 mid- 
 night 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 i6th 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, Horn- 
 sunds 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 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 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 i6th 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 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 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 pro- 
 mised 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,* 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 i6th we rose at n P.M., and began our 
 journey over the inland ice proper. The temperature of 
 the air was 3 1 F. The weather was lovely, not a cloud 
 was visible in the sky, and the atmosphere was wonder- 
 fully clear. We first passed a number of mighty mo- 
 raines, which were heaped up where the smaller glacier 
 joined the inland ice. At the very brink of the latter 
 * The neve of Torell Glacier. 
 
APPENDIX 229 
 
 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 
 1 7th 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.* 
 
 After some hours' rest we continued north-west over 
 
 * 109 metres. From the context it seems certain that this 
 should be 309 metres, = 1014 feet. 
 
230 APPENDIX 
 
 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 
 1 01 1 feet. We had walked by night because, notwith- 
 standing 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, steer- 
 ing our course by a pocket compass which we had 
 brought with us. On the night of the i8th 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 (igth) 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 Bjorling'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. Bjorling 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 
 
APPENDIX 231 
 
 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 con- 
 tinuation 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. Bjorling, 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, unen- 
 cumbered by impedimenta, to endeavour to reach the 
 ship and thence send to rescue Bjorling. 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' unbrokei. 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 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 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 iQth. 
 
 My first care was to send some men back to rescue 
 Bjorling. Unfortunately it was several hours before 
 any one could start. Klinckowstrom 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. Klinckowstrom offered to go 
 himself with two men to rescue Bjorling. The three 
 skisters were soon ready for their journey. As they 
 
APPENDIX 233 
 
 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 2ist one of them came 
 back with the news that they had certainly found the 
 tent but that Bjorling 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 Bjorling there. Joakim, 
 after following his track for a distance, had overtaken 
 Bjorling who was on his way south ; he came back then 
 with the boat, and on the afternoon of the 2ist we were 
 all together on board again. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 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 forma- 
 tions 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 ice-sheets 
 of Greenland and North-East Land. It was 
 
APPENDIX 235 
 
 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 Horn- 
 sunds 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 Nordenskiold and 
 other glaciers explored by us. The same water- 
 logged 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. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ADVENT Bay, i, 67, 90, 121, 
 
 126, 154, 221 
 
 Adventure Land, 36, 121, 220 
 Agardh Bay, 220 
 Ahlstrand, Cape, 229 
 Andree and his balloon, 155 
 Atmospherical phenomenon, 
 
 curious, 1 80 
 
 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, r6o, 
 
 162 
 Crevassed glacier, 16, 77, no, 
 
 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 gla- 
 ciers, 210, et seq. 
 Ebeltoft's Haven, 151 
 Edge Land, 223 
 Edlund, Mount, 28, 41 
 
 Ascent of, 42 
 Eiderdown, 65 
 
INDEX 
 
 Ekman Bay, 73, 92, 116, 121, 
 
 218 
 
 Ekstam, Herr, i, 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., i, 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, 
 
 in, 128 
 Torrents, 79, 83, 103, 106, 
 
 in 
 
 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, 1 1 
 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, etsqq. 
 
 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 
 
INDEX 
 
 239 
 
 LAKES, Burst Glacier, 53, 100, 
 
 r I37 
 Lerner, Dr., 3 
 
 Lov&i 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 Hinders 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, Diffi- 
 culties of, 95 
 
 Mountains, Scale of, 91, 118 
 
 NEW Friesland, 207, 219 
 Nielsen, Edward, 22, 32, 84, 
 
 125, 127, 131, 141, 170 
 Mount, 76, 78 
 Nordenskiold, Baron, A. E., 
 
 41, 156, 174, 222 
 Herr Gustaf, 176, 225 
 Glacier, 6, 8, et sqq. 
 Nordenskiold 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. 
 
 PALAEOLITHIC climbing, 163 
 Peter Winter's Bay, 69, 223 
 Pike, Mr. Arnold, 158, 223 
 Plateaus carved into moun- 
 tain 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 Schoon- 
 
 hoven 
 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 
 
240 
 
 INDEX 
 
 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, no 
 Storm on a snowfield, 34, 35 
 Strong Glacier, 221 
 Svanberg, Mount, 43 
 Svensen's troubles, 23, 32, 34, 
 , 35, 36, 40, 4 8 , 5. 66 8 4. IOI 
 
 119, 129, 149, 153, 156 
 
 TEMPLE Bay, 220 
 
 Mount, 66 
 
 Terrier Peak, 1 8, 30, 47, 50, 52 
 Teufelsdrokh on North Cape, 
 
 193 
 Thordsen Plateau, 3, 28, 93, 
 
 219 
 
 Tibet, Partially undenuded 
 
 plateau of, 210 
 Torell Glacier, 222, 228, et sqq. t 
 
 235 
 Tourists in Spitsbergen, i, 67, 
 
 155 
 Trevor-Battye, Mr. A., 157 
 
 VIEWS, Notable, 6, 17, 19, 23, 
 28, 33, 38, 46, 48, 7 1 , 87, 92. 
 
 IO5, 112, 114, I2O, 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 
 
 Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON &* Co. 
 London &" Edinburgh 
 
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