170 THE EUEOPEAN ISLANDS OF THE AECTIC OCEAN. 



IL— SPITZBERGEN. 



The Spitzbergen archipelago consists of five large and numerous small islands, 

 stretching north and south across 4° of latitude, the northernmost rocks 

 being scarcely more than 650 miles from the pole. From the careful obser- 

 vations taken at many points by Scoresby, Brook, Franklin, Beechey, Parry, 

 and Nordenskjold, the geographer Debes estimated the area of the group at 

 22,720 square miles. But the expedition of Leigh Smith and Ulve in 1871 gave 

 a further extension of at least 2,800 square miles to North-East Land, and the 

 whole area is now raised to 25,580 square miles. 



When this archipelago was discovered by Barents in 1596, Greenland was 

 supposed to extend much farther east. Some even thought that it reached the 

 Asiatic continent, and it is referred to in various legends as a Trollboten, or " Land 

 of Enchanters," occupying all the north of the globe. Although Cornells Rijp, 

 one of Barents' companions, had circumnavigated the group, a feat renewed for the 

 first time by the Norwegian Captain Carlson, that important excursion had been 

 completely forgotten, and these islands long continued to be variously treated as 

 parts of Greenland on the charts. They were also occasionally known as Nieuland, 

 or Newland, like so many other recently discovered islands ; but the name of 

 Spitzbergen, dating from the time of the first discovery, ultimatel}'- prevailed. 

 The general nomenclature, however, still remains in a chaotic state, English, Dutch, 

 Swedish, and other names contending for the supremacy, so that certain gulfs and 

 headlands have as many as ten different names. On the west coast nearly all the 

 received geographical terms are of English or Dutch origin ; but in the north, on 

 the shores of Hinlopen Strait and of North-East Land, great confusion is caused by 

 the different names imposed on the same places by English, Swedish, German, and 

 other explorers. 



Spitzbergen has no very lofty summits, the highest hitherto measured being 

 Horn Sound Peak (4,550 feet), near the southern extremity of the great island. 

 But crests 5,000 feet high are said to occur in Prince Charles Foreland, running 

 parallel with the west coast of West Land. Elsewhere there are no eminences much 

 above 3,000 feet, and the highest yet ascended is the White Mountain (2,950 feet), 

 on the east side of the great island, M^hence Nordenskjold obtained a fine prospect 

 in 1865. The interior of the island presents almost everywhere the appearance of 

 rolling plains, here and there commanded by steep rocks, whose dark sides contrast 

 forcibly with the surrounding snows. The mean elevation of the snow-fields in 

 West Spitzbergen is about 1,800 feet, and of those in North-East Land 2,000 feet. 



Although the interior of the archipelago is little known, the vast accumulations 

 of detritus at the extremities of the glaciers show that the geological formation is 

 very uniform, consisting mainly of gneiss, granites, and palaeozoic sedimentary 

 rocks. The Seven Islands, a small elevated group north of North- East Land, 

 consist entirely of gneiss, and all the northern parts are of old formation ; but 

 farther south the whole series of secondary rocks, especially the triassic and 



