APPENDIX 



THE NOMENCLATURE OF SPITSBERGEN 



SPITSBERGEN was discovered and named by the Dutch 

 in 1596. They thought it might be part of Greenland. 

 The name Spitsbergen was only given to the land with the 

 pointed peaks, and does not belong to the whole Archipelago. 

 North-East-Land, Barendsz Land, and Edge Land are not 

 parts of Spitsbergen. The English used to call Spitsbergen 

 Greenland, till a relatively recent date ; the same name is also 

 found, perhaps more frequently than Spitsbergen, in foreign 

 authors. Barendsz only named two points on Spitsbergen — 

 Vogelhoeck (the N. point of the Foreland) and Keerwyk (the 

 N. end of Foreland Sound). The other three names on his 

 map — Gebroocken Land (the islands at the NW. angle), 

 Grooten Inwyck (Ice Fjord), and Inwyck (Bell Sound) — are 

 descriptions rather than names. 



The next visitor to Spitsbergen was the English skipper 

 Hudson (1607), who called the island New Land, or King 

 James his New Land. He had Barendsz' map with him, 

 and did not attempt to change the Dutch names, but he 

 added a few of his own — Collins Cape (probably the 

 Hakluyt Headland of to-day), Hakluyt's Headland (probably 

 the N. cape of North-East-Land), Whales Bay (?), and a few 

 more. Other English skippers gave other names to new 

 points. Then came Dutch, German, and French whalers and 

 added names of their own, changing the rightful designations, 



