8 SPITSBERGEN chap, i 



for the work we had to do. We ought to have brought 

 Samoyede sledges. With them we could have accomplished 

 easily what we accomplished only as the result of the most 

 toilsome exertions, and perhaps we might have done more in 

 our time. Such, however, are always the drawbacks under 

 which pioneers labour. Learning from and profiting by our 

 experience, a party may go in some future year and add 

 largely to our knowledge of this most interesting island. 

 The ponies, again, were a great anxiety to us. We decided 

 on taking them because of Mr. Jackson's favourable account 

 of their usefulness in Franz Josef's Land. But he had Ice- 

 landic ponies. We were obliged to put up with the larger 

 and less hardy Norwegian beasts. The first that were sup- 

 plied to us were unsuitable and had to be sold at a sacrifice 

 in Trondhjem. At Tromso we acquired better animals, which 

 served us well, but they gave much trouble, and the question 

 of how to feed them was always a difficulty. In the con- 

 cluding chapter of this book I shall record the result of our 

 experience, as far as it is likely to be useful to future ex- 

 plorers. Suffice it here to say that Nansen sledges, while 

 excellent for ice-work, are the worst for boggy and stony 

 places ; whilst ponies, which are most useful in bogs and 

 valleys, are practically valueless on crevassed, snowy, and icy 

 areas. Our combination of ponies with Nansen sledges was 

 therefore about the worst possible. 



The reader must bear in mind that the main object of 

 our journey was to cross Spitsbergen and reveal the char- 

 acter of its interior. Before seeing the island we thought the 

 method to pursue would be to strike across the island along 

 two or three lines. After three days spent in the country we 

 found that a different method must be chosen. The intricate 

 nature of its topography involved detailed study of a speci- 

 men area, and this we accordingly undertook and carried 

 through. 



