32 



GUNNAR ISACHSEN. M.-N. Kl. 



river coming from Linné Lake, one of the few rivers in Spitsbergen that 

 contains clear water. 



Reindeer were formerl}- plentiful about Green Harbour^ but since they 

 have been so much hunted, partly by hunters, partly by the numerous 

 tourists visiting these regions in the summer, their number has decreased 

 considerably, and the animals have found their wa}- to other, more remote 

 regions. 



Both in earlier whaling times and subsequently, Green Harbour has 

 been one of the best-known harbours in Spitsbergen. Norwegian hunters 

 generally called it Grön-Herberg, a corruption of the English name Green 

 Harbour. Geologically, the country about Green Harbour, and the whole 

 south side of Ice Fjord, are considered to be the best known districts in 

 Spitsbergen, this being especially due to the Swedish explorers, Norden- 

 SKIÖLD, Nathorst and De Geer. 



Among earlier charts of Green Harbour may be mentioned a sketch- 

 map made by Prince Henri of Bourbon in the yacht Flcur de Lys, in 

 1891 and 1892. 



Since 1910, there has been a geological chart of the Ice Fjord sec- 

 tion by De Geer. 



The land on the east of Green Harbour consists of tertiary sand- 

 stones containing coal la3'ers, lying almost horizontally. On the west side, 

 along the northernmost piece of coast, there is also tertiary, but the grea- 

 ter part of the region nearest the coast consists of slates and sandstones, 

 now and then fossiliferous, belonging to the Jura and Trias formation. 

 The high range of mountains rising in the west, consists of silicious 

 and calcareous strata from the carboniferous age. All along the west side, 

 the dip is steep towards the east. The margin of low land surrounding 

 the coast in Green Harbour, is for the most part narrow and not 

 particularly even. On the flat on the west side there are great terraces 

 of gravel. In many places the mountains have rather a steep slope to- 

 wards the sea. The coast surrounding the greater part of the fjord con- 

 sists of clifts, generally only a few metres in height. An even sand}- shore 

 is only found on the projecting tongues of land, and at the head of the 

 fjord, in front of the huge moraine-heaps that the great glacier there 

 has piled up. At the deltas at the mouth of the river in Green Harbour 

 valley, south of Axel Cairn, and of the river to the east of Green Har- 

 bour Glacier, this sand or mud beach is very near the surface for a long 

 distance out. The extreme end of Finnes consists of sandbanks piled up 

 by the tidal streams and enclosing a lagoon. 



