26 SPITSBERGEN 



have taken the hint from the careful Martens when 

 climbing in Spitsbergen, and many who have regretted 

 not having done so. 



In ordinary summers the west side of Spitsbergen is 

 clear of ice, not so the eastern side, the difference being 

 due to the Gulf Stream, which, though evidently fail- 

 ing, is traceable along the coast round Hakluyt Head- 

 land and up to the ice barrier. In addition to this 

 there is the general cause, whatever it may be, which 

 makes the western coasts of all Arctic lands, isolated 

 or not, warmer than the eastern. Greenland, for 

 instance, is more approachable in summer from Davis 

 Strait than from the Greenland Sea, Novaya Zemlya 

 from Barents Sea than from Kara Sea, and so on with 

 all the islands and peninsulas of Asia and America. 

 Hence all this whaling was confined practically to the 

 western harbours of West Spitsbergen, the largest of 

 the group of islands. The next largest, North East 

 Land, was never much visited except from Hinlopen 

 Strait, though the Russians from time to time took 

 some interest in the north and east harbours, and would 

 have taken more, for it abounded in reindeer, if the 

 ice had not made the landing an enterprise of some 

 difficulty. 



On the east coast of North East Land, in 1743, a 

 Russian whaler was caught in the pack, and the mate, 

 Alexis Himkoff, remembering that a house had been 

 built there some years before, went on shore with his 

 godson, Ivan Himkoff, and two sailors, Scharapoff and 

 Weregin, in search of it, in case the ship should have 

 to be abandoned. They found the house, but, on 

 returning to the shore next morning, could see nothing 



