DISCOVERY 



23 



row due to our own artillen,', and partly to the cutting 

 of the wires connecting the sound-detectors with 

 Headquarters. He had to do his best in difficult 

 circumstances, get his wires mended under fire, wait 

 for lulls or night-time, and work hard then. It is a 

 great mistake, however, to conclude that even on busy 

 fronts the guns of both sides were firing all the time. 

 Conditions were not always adverse, and by experience, 

 hard work and resource, the location of the batteries 

 by sound could be effected. 



Like most scientific work used for tactical purposes 

 in the war, sound-ranging, both as a strictly scientific 

 studv of the vagaries of sound, and as an instrument 

 for helping on our side, showed steady improvement 

 in method and in utility right up to the Armistice. 

 This was due to the splendid co-operation between the 

 powers that be and the experimental sound-rangers 

 at General Headquarters, and between the Heavy 

 Artillery and the routine sound-rangers up the line. 



Note. — For further information on this subject see Nature, 

 November 13, 1919, p. 27S. 



Spitsbergen 



By R. N. Rudmose Brown, D.Sc. 



Lecturer in Geograplig in the U nirersily 0/ Slicffield 



Although the discover}' of Spitsbergen is generally 

 attributed to the Dutch in 1596, it is quite probable 

 that the Norsemen knew it earlier under the name of 

 Svalbard. Possibly, also, Russians knew it before the 

 Dutch discover}'. Early in the seventeenth century 

 British, Dutch and Danish walrus hunters and whalers 

 began to visit it in great numbers. When they fell 

 off owing to the partial extinction of their prey, Russian 

 trappers from the White Sea began the habit of winter- 

 ing in Spitsbergen in search of bears, foxes, and rein- 

 deer. At a later date Norwegians supplanted the 

 Russians and almost exterminated the game. How- 

 ever, in spite of all this activity and the visits of many 

 exploring expeditions — British, Swedish, Russian, and 

 later Nonvegian — much of the country is still un- 

 explored, and comparatively little, even of the coasts, 

 is accurately mapped. 



There is still some winter hunting in Spitsbergen, 

 but at present the country is attracting attention on 

 account of its mineral wealth. The first coal bed was 

 found about 300 years ago ; since then many other 

 seams have been discovered, but before this century 

 no attempts at coal-mining were made. Whalers and 

 hunters occasionally used the coal from time to time, 



{Continued on p. 34 



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