The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎272r] (46/154)

OCEAN, AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER OCEANOGRAPHICAL PHENOMENA. 137
carbonate may account for that inorganic precipitation of carbonate of lime which
the microscope shows must take place. There were one or two points in which one
could doubt whether Dr. Murray’s explanations are of universal application. For
example, with regard to the secretion of carbonate of lime either as calcite or as
arragonite. We know that among mollusca living together on the same banks,
some have shells of calcite and others of arragonite. In conclusion, I can only
repeat my gratitude to Dr. Murray for this extremely suggestive paper.
Dr. Murray : I think that pelagic organisms which secrete silica are most
abundant in those parts of the ocean where there is clayey matter in suspension,
as in the arctic and antarctic seas, and in the West Pacific and off the mouths of
large rivers. This, it seems to me, is more important than the temperature of the
water. In discussing the causes which have led to a similarity in the fauna and
flora of the two polar oceans, I may possibly have been rather speculative, and
have given my imagination too much rein. The interest of the subject must be
my excuse.
The President : I am sure we are all very glad that Dr. Murray has given his
imagination a little rein, but you must also have been impressed with the enormous
labour that he undertook and has completed in giving the maximum and minimum
ranges of temperature of the surface of the ocean all over the world in 2° squares.
It represents a great amount of labour, and from what we have heard to-night we
know that it has not been labour in vain ; that it has led to most interesting con
clusions, and has shown the connection that exists between physical phenomena
and biological phenomena, and we can have no doubt that Dr. Murray’s most
valuable chart will be permanently useful in the study of meteorology and of
geographical distribution. I have, therefore, every confidence that the vote of
thanks I now offer to Dr. Murray will be passed with acclamation.
AN EXPLORATION IN 1897 OF SOME OF THE GLACIERS OF
SPITSBERGEN.*
By Sir W. MARTIN CONWAY.
Last year (January 25) I had the honour of describing to this Society
some of the results of an expedition which, in the year 1896, explored
certain parts of the interior of the main island of Spitsbergen. Before
that journey the interior was practically unknown. Monsieur Eabot
had visited the Sassendal in 1892; and Herr Gustaf Nordenskidld in
1890 had made the traverse over Torell glacier between two of the
western bays, from Horn sound to the so-called Recherche bay of Bell
sound. The result of our expedition was to show that a belt of the island
bounded by Ice fjord on the north and Bell sound on the south, so far
from being a region covered with ice, is practically open country, con
sisting of boggy hillsides and valleys, divided from one another by ranges
of hills which have been carved out of a plateau. I was enabled to show,
by examples, the various stages in the evolution of these hills, from
their beginning in a plateau intersected by caiions to their final com
pletion as sharp-edged, independent peaks. In no mountain region of
* Paper read at the Royal Geographical Society, March 14, 1898. Map, p. 224.