chap i INTRODUCTORY 5 



cayans, Russians, and Norwegians have all at one time or 

 another sought Spitsbergen for industrial purposes, and by 

 their ruthless methods of extermination reduced it to its 

 present almost lifeless condition. Unfortunately it continues 

 to be a no-man's land, annexed by no state and governed 

 by no laws. Fisheries are unregulated ; there is no close 

 time for bird or beast, and so the animal depopulation 

 threatens to become complete. In the interests of science 

 and industry alike it is time Spitsbergen were annexed 

 by some power capable of regulating the country. The 

 Norwegians are the people upon whom the task should 

 fall. 



I have often been asked what the inhabitants of Spitsbergen 

 are like. There are no inhabitants, and never have been any, 

 if the few Russian trappers are excepted who spent some 

 consecutive years in the island. Its shores have proved 

 inhospitable to attempting colonists. Samoyedes could 

 doubtless thrive there, but no one has ever tried to intro- 

 duce them. 



The scientific exploration of Spitsbergen has been the 

 work of the present century. I do not refer to the employ- 

 ment of the island as a base for polar exploration by Parry 

 and others, but to the investigation of its form, its geology, 

 its fauna and flora, its climate, and its glaciers. In 1827 

 Keilhau, a Norwegian, began the study of Spitsbergen geology, 

 but Professor Sven Loven, who visited it ten years later, is to 

 be regarded as the real originator of its systematic scientific 

 exploration. He was followed by Otto Torell and Norden- 

 skjold in 1858, between which year and 1896 Sweden sent 

 no less than nine scientific expeditions to Spitsbergen. With 

 these the name of Nordenskjold is most prominently asso- 

 ciated. Meanwhile neither England nor Germany was idle, 

 as the several voyages of Lamont, Leigh Smith, and Von 

 Heuglin sufficiently attest. 



