1?,2 



there is a chance of frost. This yeu.r the temperature varied from 

 about 3° or 4° to about 9° C, but when there was no wind and 

 much sun for a few days the thermometer rose as high as + 18° C. 

 in the shadow on Aug. 1. It was difficult to reahze then that we 

 were on lat. 78° 30' N. ! 



In Green Harbour, where the „Nederlandsche Spitsbergen Com- 

 pagnie" has its coal-mine, I remained but one day, in order to go 

 on at once to another settlement of the same company, situated 

 near Cape Boheman. This settlement was founded in 1920, but the 

 less favourable situation — on a very shallow sea — in connection 

 with the low coalprices, was the cause of this mine being no longer 

 exploited. 



The crossing of Icefjord to Cape Boheman, situated on the north- 

 western shore of this large and deep sound, on about 24 miles 

 from Green Harbour, was favoured by fine weather. Icefjord and 

 its numerous bays, of which Ekman, Dickson, Klaas Billen, Sassen, 

 Advent Bay and Green Harbour or Green Bay will be mentioned 

 repeatedly, are surrounded by mountains often rising straight out 

 of the sea, and generally reaching a height of about 1000 M. The 

 Spitsbergen athmosphere being very pure, the distance to these 

 mountains always seems much shorter than it is in reality. This 

 fjord owes its name to the many glaciers, reaching into the sea, 

 especially at the N.W. side. Brünnich's and Mandt's Guillemots, 

 Little Auks and Puffins, Terns and Eiders were very common in 

 Icefjord at that time. 



Cape Boheman is the eastern point of the large Tundra Boheman, 

 which is about 15 KM. long. The tundra lies at the foot of Mt. 

 Syltoppen, which is 675 M. high, and is bounded at the N. and W. 

 side by Wahlenberg and Bore Glacier, respectively. The tundra 

 itself can be divided into a wet, swampy low part and a higher 

 (+ 40 M. max.) and dryer part, east and south of the former. In 

 this high tundra the sandstone-rocks, eroded in the Glacial Period 

 by the Glaciers, reach the surface; the vegetation consists chiefly 

 of Cassiope (Andromeda) tetragona^ Dry as odopetala and Lichens and 

 reminds us in many respects of our moors. The coast is not steep ; 

 only at the eastern side and at some places of the south coast 

 pretty high slopes occur. South of the tundra we find several islands, 

 on the two largests of which, the so-called Twins, and on the three 

 little islands, situated in each other's neighbourhood — which I will 

 call Three Isles for the future — Eiders breed in great numbers. 



