338 SPITSBERGEN chap, xxv 



Polar expedition of 1869, when the ship to which he was 

 attached was smashed in the ice, and her crew lived for 

 237 days on an ice-floe, drifting down the east coast of 

 Greenland. Captain Bade increased his Arctic experience 

 by various whaling expeditions, and in 1891 he brought up 

 a party of Wurtemberg tourists to Spitsbergen. The ex- 

 periment was so successful that he has repeated it every 

 year since, on a continually increasing scale. In 1893 

 the Hamburg-American Company's great steamer Columbia 

 brought a cargo of visitors to Advent Bay. . In 1894 the 

 Orient Company's steamer Lusitania followed her example, 

 and others have succeeded. 



Finally, in 1896, Spitsbergen may be said to have been 

 formally annexed by the ubiquitous tripper ; for, not 

 only did the enterprising Vesteraalen Steamboat Company 

 institute a weekly service of steamers running between 

 Hammerfest and Advent Bay during the six summer-holiday 

 weeks, but they were even bold enough to erect, on the 

 site of an old Norwegian hut on Advent Point, a small 

 wooden inn. I understand that in 1897 ^ ne Y propose to 

 offer even greater facilities. In addition to the weekly 

 steamer and the inn, they will have in Spitsbergen waters 

 two small, properly built wooden steamers, to carry visitors 

 to various points of interest ; whilst the whole service will 

 be under the direction of Captain Sverdrup, Nansen's well- 

 known companion in Greenland and across the Polar 

 Ocean. 1 



To the ordinary traveller Spitsbergen cannot fail to 

 afford interesting experiences. If he goes up fairly early 

 in the year he will probably meet with drift-ice on the 

 sea between Bear Island and the South Cape or Point 



1 Persons desirous of information about this matter should communicate with 

 the manager of the Vesteraalen Steamship Company, Mr. With, Stokmarknaes, 

 Lofoten. 



