24 



DISCOVERY 



and exploring vessels, short of fuel, have replenished 

 their supplies on some occasions. Coal was not the 

 first mineral to bring miners to Spitsbergen. As long 

 ago as 1872 an unsuccessful attempt was made to dig 

 phosphates by a Swedish company. It was. however, 

 a British company which began coal-mining in 1904. 

 Their mine was near the mouth of Advent Bay, and 

 there grew the first timber village in Spitsbergen. For 

 various reasons the mine was abandoned after a few 

 years. In I9C'4 Americans also came on the scene, 

 purchasing from Norwegian owners an estate in 

 Advent Bay opposite the English mine. Longyear 

 City, as they called their camp, grew in a few years' 

 time to a settlement of several hundred miners living 

 in log houses. It is still the unofficial capital of 

 Spitsbergen, and its wharf in summer is seldom without 

 a steamer loading coal by the wire ropeway from the 

 mine. The success of the Americans brought a host 

 of prospectors to Spitsbergen. They planted their 

 claim boards on every shore, as often as not ignoring 

 previous claimants. In districts where coal was 

 known to occur the claim boards were most frequent, 

 but quite valueless shores had their share of them. 

 No attempt was made to develop most of the estates 

 beyond the construction of a few prospectors' huts. As 

 often as not the so-called "prospectors" were quite 

 unqualified for their task. In those days Spitsbergen 

 was beyond the sovereignty of any nation : no State 

 had the power to enforce its laws. There was no 

 satisfactory system of registering claims, and no court 

 of arbitration or appeal. Anarchy reigned, and each 

 claimant had to watch and protect his own interests, 

 but except for the insecurity of property, the system 

 or want of system worked well enough. The absence 

 of taxes, mining dues, etc., had its advantages. 



It was, however, due to the war that Spitsbergen 

 mining really progressed, and incidentally that 

 Spitsbergen ceased to be a no-man's land. During 

 the years of war, development work on British claims 

 was perforce in abeyance, but it made great strides on 

 Nor^vegian and Swedish estates. This was due to 

 the high cost of coal and its great scarcity in Norway 

 and Sweden. Scandinavians worked with feverish 

 energy to extract as much coal as possible in Spitsbergen 

 before the price of coal fell. The American coal-mine 

 was bought by Nor\vegians, two new Norwegian mines 

 and a Russian mine were started, and a Swedish 

 mine revived. As soon as the war was over the two 

 British companies owning land were again at work on 

 their estates. One of them last summer not only 

 located a new coal-field and begun its development, 

 but discovered large deposits of good iron-ore on 

 Prince Charles Foreland, the most westerly island of 

 the group. At present five mines in Spitsbergen are 

 exporting coal ; this number will soon be increased. 



The total coal export has risen from 35,000 tons in 

 1913 to close on 100,000 tons in 1919 ; in a few years 

 it should be over 250,000 tons. Even this will be in- 

 sulTicient to supply Norwegian ports between Narvik 

 and Vardo, to say nothing of the demands of the 

 Russian ports of Murmansk and Arkhangel. 



Although in the .Xrctic regions, Spitsbergen is really 

 part of Europe. It is only 400 miles from Norway, 

 and 1,300 miles from the Firth of Forth. Spitsbergen 

 — which has an area about equal to that of Scotland — 

 includes one large and a number of smaller islands. 

 The distant Bear Island and Hope Island are generally 

 included. The mainland of Spitsbergen is deeply 

 indented on the west by long, branching fjords : Ice- 

 fjord, Bell Sound, King's Bay, and Smecrenburg Sound 

 are names of frequent occurrence in the long and 

 adventurous story of Spitsbergen. Narrow strips of 

 plain fringe some of the coasts, and are crossed by 

 glaciers flowing to the sea down the valleys of the 

 ranges. For the most part the country is very 

 mountainous, but few peaks rise to more than 3,000 

 or 4,000 feet. Almost everywhere the surface of the 

 land is rough and rocky, or covered with swamps, 

 but several levels of raised beach around the coasts 

 afford natural highways and building sites of great 

 value in the present phase of Spitsbergen's develop- 

 ment. 



In winter the temperatures are low, the snow-line 

 descends to sea-level, and the coasts are generally ice- 

 bound, but in summer the conditions are very different. 

 The warm Atlantic drift and the prevailing south- 

 westerly winds not only keep the western coasts open 

 and free from ice from May or June to October, but 

 cause comparatively high temperatures. The result 

 is that the west coasts are easily accessible throughout 

 the summer by ordinary vessels, and all the lower 

 ground is free from snow. The continuous daylight 

 adds to the charm of summer in Spitsbergen. Vegeta- 

 tion is scanty, and there are no trees. Patches of 

 bright-coloured flowers, however, are not infrequent, 

 and mossy bogs are numerous. The animal life 

 includes reindeer and foxes throughout the year, 

 and polar bears in winter when the pack-ice comes 

 south. Bird life is abundant, many of our well-known 

 birds going north to Spitsbergen to breed in summer : 

 but in winter the ptarmigan or some wandering gull 

 arc the only birds to be seen. Mosquitoes, the summer 

 plague of Northern Europe, do not occur. 



There has never been any native population, but the 

 land is not uninhabitable, as is proved by the fact that 

 this winter over 500 miners are living ihere in comiort. 

 Longyear City, the largest settlement, has some thirty 

 large houses, comfortably furnished, many with central 

 heating, and all lit by electricity. There are club- 

 rooms, billiard tables, libraries, and even a kinema 



