2[>6 Dr Martens on the Glaciers of Spitsbergen. 



but the following are what I could collect on the subject. 

 Our two pilots, who had often visited Spitzbergen, assured 

 me that they had always seen the glaciers in the same place. 

 We tried to obtain information of a more ancient date. The 

 lieutenant of the Recherche, M. Delangle, had the goodness 

 to lend me an old Dutch map, entitled Nieuwe Jfteckning van 

 hat Eyland Spitzbergen opgegeven door de Commandeurs Giles, 

 en Outger Fep, en irit ligt gelegt en uytgegeven Gerard Van 

 Kculen Boek en Zeekaart, verkooper aan de Nieumenbrng, met 

 Privilegie, vor 15 Jaaren. 



This map has no date, but it cannot be earlier than 1707, 

 the time when Commander Giles discovered the land which 

 bears his name. The rudeness of the execution proves that 

 it is not posterior to his time, unless by a very few years. It 

 is ill laid down, but there is considerable accuracy in the de- 

 sign of the coast. Bell Sound is put down under the name 

 of Bel Sond of Klok Bay of Willem van Muyens Bay. In the 

 place now -occupied by the great glacier of Bell Sound a nar- 

 row tongue of land appears, behind which is a creek with an 

 anchorage, which bears the name of Schoone Bay. At the 

 bottom of this bay there is a small river designated the Sar- 

 dammer Fiver. Nothing of this kind is now to be seen at 

 Bell Sound, the whole of the part in question being occupied 

 by the glacier. But we find other details which prove the 

 accuracy of the Dutch hydrographers. The mountain on 

 which we had established an observatory is called Slaad-berg. 

 We recognise the small island of Eiders, and the river Sar- 

 dam is perhaps the considerable rivulet which runs along the 

 western side of the glacier, and which the latter may have 

 diverted from its course. We cannot admit that the authors 

 have neglected to mark the glaciers, for that of Pointe aux 

 Renards is exactly indicated. 



On the same chart the bottom of the Bay of Magdalena is 

 semi-circular, as it would be if the glacier did not advance 

 into the sea ; and we perceive a small island to the north in 

 a place which is now occupied by it. 



It is therefore possible that the glaciers may have advanced 

 since the period when the coast was surveyed by the Dutch. 

 At the same time, I do not grant to these observations a conn- 



