Arctic Lands—Greenland—Spitzbergen—Iceland—Its Volcanic Phenomena and
Geysers—Jan Mayen’s Land—New Siberian Islands—Antarctic Lands—Victoria
Continent.
GREENLAND, the most extensive of the Arctic lands, begins with the lofty
promontory of Cape Farewell, the southern extremity of a group of rocky
islands, which are separated by a channel five miles wide from a
table-land of appalling aspect, narrow to the south, but increasing in
breadth northward to a distance of which only 1300 miles are known. This
table-land is bounded by mountains rising from the deep in mural
precipices, which terminate in needles and pyramids, or in parallel
terraces, of alternate snow and bare rock, occasionally leaving a narrow
shore. The coating of ice is so continuous and thick that the surface of
the table-land may be regarded as one enormous glacier, which overlaps
the rocky edges and dips between the mountain-peaks into the sea.
The coasts are beset with rocky islands, and cloven by fiords, which in
some instances wind like rivers for 100 miles into the interior. These
deep inlets of the sea, now sparkling in sunshine, now shaded in gloom,
are hemmed in by walls of rock often 2000 feet high, whose summits are
hid in the clouds. They generally terminate in glaciers, which are
sometimes forced on by the pressure of the upper ice-plains till they
fill the fiord, and even project far into the sea like bold headlands,
when, undermined by the surge, huge masses of ice fall from them with a
crash like thunder, making the sea boil. These icebergs, carried by
currents, are stranded on the Arctic coast, or are drawn into lower
latitudes. The ice is very transparent and compact in the Arctic
regions; its prevailing tints are blue, green, and orange, which,
contrasted with the dazzling whiteness of the snow and the gloomy hue of
the rocks, produce a striking effect.
A great fiord in the 68th parallel of latitude is supposed to extend
completely across the table-land, dividing the country into south and
north Greenland, which last extends indefinitely towards the pole; but
it is altogether inaccessible from the frozen sea and the iron-bound
shore, so that, excepting a very small portion of the coast, it is an
unknown region.
In some sheltered spots in south Greenland, especially along the borders
of the fiords, there are meadows where the service-tree bears fruit,
beech and willow trees grow by the streams, but not taller than a man;
still farther north the willow and juniper scarcely rise above the
surface; yet this country has a flora peculiar to itself. South of the
island of Disco on the west coast, Danish colonies and missionaries have
made settlements on some of the islands and at the mouths of fiords; the
Esquimaux inhabit the coasts even to the extremity of Baffin’s Bay.
The pelasgic islands in the Arctic Ocean are highly volcanic, with the
exception of Spitzbergen. In the island of Spitzbergen the mountains
spring sharp and grand from the margin of the sea in dark gloomy masses,
mixed with pure snow and enormous glaciers, presenting a sublime
spectacle. Seven valleys filled by glaciers ending at the sea form a
remarkable object on the east coast. One of the largest masses of ice
seen by Captain Scoresby on the island was north of Horn Sound: it
extended 11 miles along the shore, with a sea-face in one part more than
2000 feet high, from which he saw a huge fragment hurled into the sea,
which it lashed into vapour, as it broke into a thousand pieces. The sun
is not seen for several months in the year, when the intensity of the
cold splits rocks, and makes the sea reek like a boiling caldron. Many
have perished in the attempt to winter in this island, yet a colony of
Russian hunters and fishermen lead a miserable existence there, within
10° of the pole, the most northern inhabited spot on the globe.
Although the direct rays of the sun are powerful in sheltered spots
within the Arctic Circle, the thermometer does not rise above 45° of
Fahrenheit. July is the only month in which snow does not fall, and in
the end of August the sea at night is covered with a thin coating of
ice, and a summer often passes without one day that can be called warm.
The snow-blink, the aurora, the stars, and the moon, which appears ten
or twelve days without intermission in her northern declination, furnish
the greatest light the inhabitants enjoy in their long winter.
Iceland is 200 miles east from Greenland, and lies south of the Arctic
Circle, which its most northern part touches. Though a fifth part larger
than Ireland, not more than 4000 square miles are habitable, all beside
being a chaos of volcanos and ice.
The peculiar feature of Iceland lies in a trachytic region which seems
to rest on an ocean of fire. It consists of two vast parallel
table-lands covered with ice-clad mountains, stretching from N.E. to
S.W. through the very centre of the island, separated by a longitudinal
valley nearly 100 miles wide, which reaches from sea to sea. These
mountains assume rounded forms, with long level summits or domes with
sloping declivities, as in the trachytic mountains of the Andes and
elsewhere; but such huge masses of tufa and conglomerate project from
their sides in perpendicular or overhanging precipices, separated by
deep ravines, that the regularity of their structure can only be
perceived from a distance; they conceal under a cold and tranquil
coating of ice the fiery germs of terrific convulsions, sometimes
bursting into dreadful activity, sometimes quiescent for ages. The most
extensive of the two parallel ranges of Jockuls or Ice Mountains runs
along the eastern side of the valley, and contains Ordefa, the highest
point in Iceland, seen like a white cloud from a great distance at sea;
the western high land passes through the centre of the island.
Glaciers cover many thousand square miles in Iceland, descending from
the mountains, and pushing far into the low lands. This tendency of the
ice to encroach has very materially diminished the quantity of habitable
ground, and the progress of the glaciers is facilitated by the influence
of the ocean of subterranean fire, which heats the superincumbent
ground, and loosens the ice.
The longitudinal space between the mountainous table-lands is a low
valley 100 miles wide, extending from sea to sea, where a substratum of
trachyte is covered with lava, sand, and ashes, studded with low
volcanic cones. It is a tremendous desert, never approached without
dread even by the natives—a scene of perpetual conflict between the
antagonist powers of fire and frost, without a drop of water or a blade
of grass; no living creature is to be seen—not a bird, nor even an
insect. The surface is a confused mass of streams of lava rent by
crevices; and rocks piled on rocks, and occasional glaciers, complete
the scene of desolation. As herds of reindeer are seen browsing on the
Iceland moss that grows plentifully at its edges, it is presumed that
some unknown parts may be less barren. The extremities of the valley are
more especially the theatres of perpetual volcanic activity. At the
southern end, which opens to the sea in a wide plain, there are many
volcanos, of which Heckla is most known, from its insulated position,
its vicinity to the coast, and its tremendous eruptions. Between the
years 1004 and 1766 twenty-three violent eruptions have taken place, one
of which continued six years, spreading devastation over a country once
the abode of a thriving colony, now covered with lava, scoria, and
ashes: in the year 1846 it was in full activity. The eruption of the
Skaptar Jockul, which broke out on the 8th of May, 1783, and continued
till August, is one of the most dreadful recorded. The volcanic fire
must have been in fearful commotion under Europe, for a tremendous
earthquake ruined a wide extent of Calabria that year, and a submarine
volcano had been burning fiercely for many weeks in the ocean, 30 miles
from the south-west cape of Iceland. Its fires suddenly ceased, the
island was shaken by earthquakes, when, at the distance of 150 miles,
they burst forth with almost unexampled fury in Skaptar. The sun was hid
many months by dense clouds of vapour, which extended to England and
Holland, and clouds of ashes were carried many hundreds of miles to sea.
The quantity of matter thrown out in this eruption was computed at fifty
or sixty thousand millions of cubic yards. The lava flowed in a stream
in some places from 20 to 30 miles broad, and of enormous thickness,
which filled the beds of rivers, poured into the sea nearly 50 miles
from the places of its eruption, and destroyed the fishing on the coast.
Some rivers were heated to ebullition, others dried up; the condensed
vapour fell in snow and torrents of rain; the country was laid waste;
famine and disease ensued; and in the course of the two succeeding years
1300 people and 150,000 sheep and horses perished. The scene of horror
was closed by a dreadful earthquake. Previous to the explosion an
ominous mildness of temperature indicated the approach of the volcanic
fire towards the surface of the earth; similar warnings had been
observed before in the eruptions of Heckla.
A semicircle of volcanic mountains on the eastern side of the Lake
Myvatr is the focus of the igneous phenomena at the northern end of the
great central valley. Leirhnukr and Krabla, on the N.E. of the lake,
have been equally formidable. After years of quiescence they suddenly
burst into violent eruption, and poured such a quantity of lava into the
lake Myvatr, which is 20 miles in circumference, that the water boiled
many days. There are other volcanos in this district no less formidable.
Various caldrons of boiling mineral pitch, the shattered craters of
ancient volcanos, occur at the base of this semicircle of mountains, and
also on the flanks of Mount Krabla: these caldrons throw up jets of the
dark matter, enveloped in clouds of steam, at regular intervals, with
loud explosion. That which issues from the crater of Krabla must, by Mr.
Henderson’s description, be one of the most terrific objects in nature.
The eruptive boiling springs of Iceland are perhaps the most
extraordinary phenomena in this singular country. All the great aqueous
eruptions occur in the trachytic formation; they are characterized by
their high temperature, by holding siliceous matter in solution, which
they deposit in the form of siliceous sinter, and by the discharge of
sulphuretted hydrogen gas. Numerous instances of spouting springs occur
at the extremities of the great central valley, especially at its
southern end, where more than fifty have been counted in the space of a
few acres—some constant, others periodical—some merely agitated, or
stagnant. The Great Geyser and Strokr, 35 miles north-west from Heckla,
are the most magnificent; at regular intervals they project large
columns of boiling water 100 feet high, enveloped in clouds of steam,
with tremendous noise. The tube of the Great Geyser whence the jet
issues is about 10 feet in diameter and 75 feet deep; it opens into the
centre of a basin 4 feet deep and between 46 and 50 feet in diameter: as
soon as the basin is filled by the boiling water that rises through the
tube, explosions are heard, the ground trembles, the water is thrown to
the height of 100 or 150 feet, followed by large volumes of steam. No
farther explosion takes place till the empty basin and tube are again
replenished.
MM. Descloiseaux and Bunsen, who visited Iceland in 1846, found the
temperature of the Great Geyser, at the depth of 72 feet, before a great
eruption, to be 260-1/2° of Fahrenheit, and after the eruption 251-1/2°;
an interval of 28 hours passed without any eruption. The Strokr (from
stroka, to agitate), 140 yards from the Great Geyser, is a circular
well, a little more than 44 feet deep, with an orifice of 8 feet, which
diminishes to little more than 10 inches at a depth of 27 feet. The
surface of the water is in constant ebullition, while at the bottom the
temperature exceeds that of boiling water by about 24°. By the
experiments of M. Donny of Ghent, water long boiled becomes more and
more free from air, by which the cohesion of the particles is so much
increased that when it is exposed to a heat sufficient to overcome the
force of cohesion, the production of steam is so instantaneous and so
considerable as to cause explosion. To this cause he ascribes the
eruptions of the Geysers, which are in constant ebullition for many
hours, and become so purified from air, that the strong heat at the
bottom at last overcomes the cohesion of the particles, and an explosion
takes place. The boiling spring of Tunquhaer, in the valley of Reikholt,
is remarkable from having two jets, which play alternately for about
four minutes each. Some springs emit gas only, or gas with a small
quantity of water. Such fountains are not confined to the land or fields
of ice; they occur also in the sea, and many issue from the crevices in
the lava-bed of Lake Myvatr, and rise in jets above the surface of the
water.
A region of the same character with the mountains of the Icelandic
desert extends due west from it to the extremity of the long narrow
promontory of the Sneefield Syssel, ending in the snow-clad cone of the
Sneefield Jockul, 5000 feet high, one of the most conspicuous mountains
in Iceland.
With the exception of the purely volcanic districts described,
trap-rocks cover a great part of Iceland, which have been formed by
streams of lava at very ancient epochs, occasionally 4000 feet deep.
The dismal coasts are torn in every direction by fiords, penetrating
many miles into the interior, and splitting into endless branches, in
these fissures the sea is still, dark, and deep, between walls of rock
1000 feet high. The fiords, however, do not here, as in Greenland,
terminate in glaciers, but are prolonged in narrow valleys, through
which streams and rivers run to the sea. In these valleys the
inhabitants have their abode, or in meadows which have a transient
verdure along some of the fiords, where the sea is so deep that ships
find safe anchorage.
In the valleys on the northern coast, near as they approach to the
Arctic Circle, the soil is wonderfully good, and there is more
vegetation than in any other part of Iceland, with the exception of the
eastern shore, which is the most favoured portion of this desolate land.
Rivers abounding in fish are much more frequent there than elsewhere;
willows and juniper adorn the valleys, and birch-trees, 20 feet high,
grow in the vale of Lagerflest, the only place which produces them large
enough for house-building, and the verdure is fine on the banks of those
streams which are heated by volcanic fires.
The climate of Iceland is much less rigorous than that of Greenland, and
it would be still milder were not the air chilled by the immense fields
of ice from the Polar Sea which beset its shores.
The inhabitants are supplied with fuel by the Gulf Stream, which brings
drift-wood in great quantities from Mexico, the Carolinas, Virginia, the
river St. Lawrence, and some even from the Pacific Ocean is drifted by
currents round by the northern shores of Siberia. The mean temperature
in the south of the island is about 39° of Fahrenheit, that of the
central districts 36°, and in the north it is rarely above the freezing
point. The cold is most intense when the sky is clear, but that is a
rare occurrence, as the wind from the sea covers mountain and valley
with thick fog. Hurricanes are frequent and furious; and although
thunder is seldom heard in high latitudes, Iceland is an exception, for
tremendous thunder-storms are not uncommon there—a circumstance no doubt
owing to the volcanic nature of that island, as lightning accompanies
volcanic eruptions everywhere. At the northern end of the island the sun
is always above the horizon in the middle of summer, and under it in
mid-winter, yet there is no absolute darkness.
The island of Jan Mayen lies midway between Iceland and Spitzbergen; it
is the most northern volcanic country known. Its principal feature is
the volcano of Beerenberg, 6870 feet high, whose lofty snow-capped cone,
apparently inaccessible, has been seen to emit fire and smoke. It is
flanked by enormous glaciers, like frozen cataracts, which occupy three
hollows in an almost perpendicular cliff, which descends from the base
of the mountain to the sea.
The group of New Siberian Islands, which lie north of the province of
Yakutsk, and in about 78° of N. lat., have so rude a climate that they
have no permanent inhabitants; they are remarkable for the vast quantity
of fossil bones they contain: the elephant’s tusks found there have for
years been an article of commerce.
The south polar lands are equally volcanic, and as deeply ice-bound, as
those to the north. Victoria Land, which from its extent seems to form
part of a continent, was discovered by Sir James Ross, who commanded the
expedition sent by the British government in 1839 to ascertain the
position of the south magnetic pole. This extensive tract lies under the
meridian of New Zealand; Cape North, its most northern point, is situate
in 70° 31ʹ S. lat., and 165° 28ʹ E. long. To the west of that cape the
northern coast of this new land terminates in perpendicular ice-cliffs,
from 200 to 500 feet high, stretching as far as the eye can reach, with
a chain of grounded icebergs extending for miles from the base of the
cliffs, all of tabular form, and varying in size from one to nine or ten
miles in circumference. A lofty range of peaked mountains rises in the
interior at Cape North, covered with unbroken snow, only relieved from
uniform whiteness by shadows produced by the undulations of the surface.
The indentations of the coast are filled with ice many hundreds of feet
thick, which makes it impossible to land. To the east of Cape North the
coast trends first to S.E. by E. and then in a southerly direction to
78-1/4° of S. lat., at which point it suddenly bends to the east, and
extends in one continuous vertical ice-cliff to an unknown distance in
that direction. The first view of Victoria Land is described as most
magnificent. “On the 11th of January, 1841, in about latitude 71° S. and
longitude 171° E., the Antarctic continent was first seen, the general
outline of which at once indicated its volcanic character, rising
steeply from the ocean in a stupendous mountain-range, peak above peak
enveloped in perpetual snow, and clustered together in countless groups
resembling a vast mass of crystallization, which, as the sun’s rays were
reflected on it, exhibited a scene of such unequalled magnificence and
splendour as would baffle all power of language to portray, or give the
faintest conception of. One very remarkable peak, in shape like a huge
crystal of quartz, rose to the height of 7867 feet, another to 9096, and
a third to 8444 feet above the level of the sea. From these peaks ridges
descended to the coast, terminating abruptly in bold capes and
promontories, whose steep escarpments, affording shelter to neither ice
nor snow, alone showed the jet black lava or basalt, which reposed
beneath the mantle of eternal frost.”... “On the 28th, in lat. 77° 31ʹ
and long. 167° 1ʹ, the burning volcano, Mount Erebus, was discovered,
covered with ice and snow from its base to its summit, from which a
dense column of black smoke towered high above the other numerous lofty
cones and crateriferous peaks with which this extraordinary land is
studded from the 72d to the 78th degree of latitude. Its height above
the sea is 12,367 feet, and Mount Terror, an extinct crater near to it,
which has doubtless once given vent to fires beneath, attains an
altitude little inferior, being 10,884 feet in height, and ending in a
cape, from which a vast barrier of ice extended in an easterly
direction, checking all farther progress south. This continuous
perpendicular wall of ice, varying in height from 200 to 100 feet, its
summit presenting an almost unvarying level outline, we traced for 300
miles, when the pack-ice obstructed all farther progress.”[89]
The vertical cliff in question forms a completely solid mass of ice
about 1000 feet thick, the greater part of which is below the surface of
the sea; there is not the smallest appearance of a fissure throughout
its whole extent, and the intensely blue sky beyond indicated plainly
the great distance to which the ice-plains reach southward. Gigantic
icicles hang from every projecting point of the icy cliff, showing that
it sometimes thaws in these latitudes, although in the month of
February, which corresponds with August in England, Fahrenheit’s
thermometer did not rise above 14° at noon. In the North Polar Ocean, on
the contrary, streams of water flow from every iceberg during the
summer. The whole of this country is beyond the pale of vegetation: no
moss, not even a lichen, covers the barren soil where everlasting winter
reigns. Parry’s Mountains, a lofty range, stretching south from Mount
Terror to the 79th parallel, is the most southern land yet discovered.
The South Magnetic Pole, one of the objects of the expedition, is
situate in Victoria Land, in 75° 5ʹ S. lat., and 154° 8ʹ E. long.,
according to Sir James C. Ross’s observations.
Various tracts of land have been discovered near the Antarctic Circle,
and within it, though none in so high a latitude as Victoria Land.
Whether they form part of one large continent remains to be ascertained.
Discovery ships sent by the Russian, French, and American governments
have increased our knowledge of these remote regions, and the spirited
adventures of British merchants and captains of whalers have contributed
quite as much.[90] The land within the Antarctic Circle is generally
volcanic, at least the coast-line, which is all that is yet known, and
that, being covered with snow and ice, is destitute of vegetation. [The
land described by Sir James Ross as Victoria Land, was, in fact,
discovered by the U. S. Exploring Expedition, under the command of
Charles Wilkes, Esq., U. S. Navy. He says:—“That land does exist within
the Antarctic Circle is now confirmed by the united testimony of both
French and English navigators. D’Urville, the celebrated French
navigator, _within a few days after land was seen by the three vessels
of our squadron_, reports that his boats landed on a small point of
rocks, at the place (as I suppose) which appeared accessible to us in
Piner’s Bay, whence the Vincennes was driven by a violent gale; this he
called Clarie Land, and testifies to his belief of the existence of a
vast tract of land, where our view of it has left no doubt of its
existence. Ross, on the other hand, penetrated to the latitude of 79° S.
in the succeeding year, coasted for some distance along a lofty country
connected with our Antarctic Continent, and establishes beyond all cavil
the correctness of our assertion that we have discovered, not a range of
detached islands, but a vast Antarctic Continent. How far Captain Ross
was guided in his search by our previous discoveries will best appear by
reference to the chart, with a full account of the proceedings of the
squadron, which I sent to him, and which I have inserted in Appendix
XXIV., and Atlas. Although I have never received any acknowledgment of
their receipt from him personally, yet I have heard of their having
reached his hands a few months prior to his Antarctic cruise.”]—
_Wilkes’s “Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition,”_ vol. ii., p.
281-2.