8 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



that in a short time they will inevitably be 

 completely denuded of furred animals. 



I found that the five hunters stationed on 

 Hope Island, which I visited in 1909, had killed 

 eighty bears without counting the wounded 

 animals which had vanished, to die away over 

 the ice. 



Bears are so rare even in the winter on the 

 western coasts of Spitzbergen that the exploita- 

 tion of them has been abandoned. Very shortly, 

 too, the coal-miners will have destroyed the 

 few foxes and reindeer remaining. It is inter- 

 esting to note that it was in this neighbourhood, 

 Ice- Fjord, that that famous old trapper, Stara- 

 chine, passed thirty winters from the years 

 1810 to 1840 and never once lacked game. 



Trapping will soon be a thing of the 

 past in the European section of the Arctic 

 regions. 



During my last voyage I met, at Jan May en 

 and on the coasts of Greenland, two groups of 

 wintering Norwegians who merit some mention 

 in these records. 



For long I had desired to visit Jan Mayen, 

 and my anticipations were finally realised 

 when, on June 21, 1910, I approached the 

 huge cone of Beerenberg, which, rising from a 

 sea calm as a lake to a height of almost eight 



