CHAPTER XVIII 



REPORT UPON EKMAN BAY AND 

 DICKSON BAY 



By AUBYN TREVOR-BATTYE 



THE fjord system that penetrates Spitsbergen from the 

 south northward is separable into two principal bodies 

 of water, Ice Fjord and North Fjord. Of these North 

 Fjord, lying north of a line joining Cape Boheman with 

 Cape Thordsen, separates to the north into two divisions — 

 Ekman Bay and Dickson Bay. 



Dickson Bay is seldom entered, because its mouth is 

 almost closed by a jut of land ; the bay itself is very 

 shallow, and the ice, drifted and accumulated in the 

 narrow entry, may render the exit of a boat impossible 

 for weeks together at a time. At the northern end of 

 Dickson Bay is a neck of land, on the other side of 

 which lies Wijde Bay. This neck connects the two land 

 areas of West Spitsbergen, which may therefore be com- 

 pared to a (very irregular) dumb-bell. The link obviously 

 offers a possible way of escape to the crews of vessels 

 entrapped by the descending ice-pack in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Seven Islands, or of Verlegen Hook, and it 

 would be impossible to overrate the value of a crossing well 

 laid down. 



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