SPITZBEEGEN. 177 



captured ; but Nordenskjold asks how such, losses could be repaired, and mentions, 

 without adopting it, the opinion of certain naturalists, who speak of migrations 

 from Novaya Zemlya on drift-ice. 



The walrus, of which 13.0 were taken during the season by sixteen vessels in 

 1829, has almost disappeared from the southern seaboard, and schools of thirty to 

 forty are now met only on the north side. Multitudes of sea-fowl frequent the 

 isolated rocks and reefs, where their nests are safe from the ravages of the fox. 

 But all these birds, comprising twenty-seven or twenty-eight distinct species, arc 

 migratory, with the exception of the ptarmigan, which remains all the year round. 

 There are no reptiles, and the surrounding waters were long supposed to be desti- 

 tute of fish ; but as many as twenty species had been recorded up to the year 1861. 

 Malmgrèn found fifteen species only of insects, and butterflies, grasshoppers, and 

 coleoptera are all wanting. In. the snows that melt at contact with the sea- water 

 there are myriads of phosphorescent Crustacea, which dart about like blue sparks, 

 producing the efiect of a vivid display of fireworks. 



Like the bird of passage, man visits Spitzbergen only during the summer 

 season. Nevertheless, shipwrecked sailors, hunters, and naturalists have wintered 

 on its shores ; and a Russian named Starashtchin, after passing twenty-three years 

 at Green Harbour, an inlet of the Ijs-fiord, on the west coast, died there of old 

 age in 1826. All the remains of huts, by whomsoever erected, are known as 

 "Russian huts." The archipelago was much more frequented during the last 

 century than at present. At that epoch the great cetacea swarmed in the surround- 

 ing seas, and were yearly hunted by as many as 12,000 whalers. Villages built of 

 planks were erected under the shelter of the headlands ; temporary international 

 fairs were held on the beach ; and regular battles at times took place between the 

 crews of the rival or hostile fleets. The finest village was Smeerenberg, belonging 

 to the Dutch, who were the most numerous and energetic. Here a whole quarter, 

 known as the " Haarlem Kitchen," was occupied by those engaged in boiling down 

 the blubber. During the period between 1669 and 1778, 14,167 Dutch whalers, 

 frequenting the waters especially in the west and north-west, captured 57,590 

 animals, yielding a profit of £3,710,000. 



Smeerenberg, which stands at the north-west corner of the great island, was 

 visited in 1878 by the Dutch schooner, Willem Barents, when a monument was 

 erected, in the name of the nation, to the navigators who discovered the 

 archipelago, and to their fellow-countrymen who here perished. On the same 

 coast the Basques, the Hanseatic traders, the Danes, and the Norwegians had 

 their chief fishing stations. Farther south is Magdalena Bay, which has been 

 carefully explored by naturalists, and on the north-east Foul Bay, one of the most 

 frequented havens. Still farther north are the Norway Isles, where Sabine made 

 his magnetic observations, and which became the central point for the astronomical 

 observations of Nordenskjold and his associates. This spot, or some neighbouring 

 headland, might perhaps be the most convenient site for one of those circumpolar 

 observatories which Weyprecht proposes to establish for the purpose of studying 

 in all their details the meteorological perturbations of the arctic regions. In 

 157 



