. The Arctic world: its plants, animals and natural phenomena [microform] : with a historical sketch of Arctic discovery down to the British Polar Expedition: 1875-76. British Polar Expedition, 1875-76; British Polar Expedition, 1875-76; Zoology; Zoologie. 110 FORMATION OF OLACIKR, nBLL SOUND, SPITZDKROKN. The Spitzborgen glaciers do not exhibit those numerous moraines which are observed on the majority of those of Switzerland. 'J'he inountains, not being very lofty, are buried, as it were, under their burden of glaciers, instead of preponderating over them, and seem with difficulty
. The Arctic world: its plants, animals and natural phenomena [microform] : with a historical sketch of Arctic discovery down to the British Polar Expedition: 1875-76. British Polar Expedition, 1875-76; British Polar Expedition, 1875-76; Zoology; Zoologie. 110 FORMATION OF OLACIKR, nBLL SOUND, SPITZDKROKN. The Spitzborgen glaciers do not exhibit those numerous moraines which are observed on the majority of those of Switzerland. 'J'he inountains, not being very lofty, are buried, as it were, under their burden of glaciers, instead of preponderating over them, and seem with difficulty to lift their peaks out of the mass of ice and snow surrounding them. Con- sequently, there are no consideraMe land- slips or falls of earth and stone, which, accumulating along the borders of the glaciers, might form moraines. Martins 'i of opinion that the Spitzbergcn glaciers correspond to the upper part of the glaciers of Switzerland ; to so much, that is to say, as lies above the perpetual snow-line. Now, he says, the higher we ascend on an Alpine gla/jier, the more do the lateral and medial moraines diminish in width and form, until they taper away and finally disappear under the high 7idvds of the amphitheatres from which the glacier issues, just as the mountain torrents often take their rise in one or in several lakes terraced one above the other. For all these reasons, he adds, the medial and lateral moraines are scarcely conspicuous on the glaciers of Spitzbergen ; a number of stones and boulders may be seen along their sides, and sometimes in their centre, but the ice is never hidden, as in the Alps, under the mass of debris accumulated upon it. As for the terminal moraines, they must be sought at the bottom of the sea, since the terminal escarpment nearly always overhangs it. Hence, the blocks of stone fall simul- taneously with the blocks of ice, and form a submarine frontal moraine, of which the two extremitias are occasionally visible upon the shore. In a previo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1876
