ITS 



THE EUEOPEAX ISLANDS OF THE AECTIC OCEAS. 



anticipation of such an undertaking Russia and Sweden have already contended 

 for the possession of the archipelago. A meteorological station would be here all 

 the more useful, inasmuch as Spitzbergen seems to occupy the point of contact 

 between the American and Asiatic zones of the winds. 



Xorth of Spitzbergen there is no land, at least as far as the eighty-third parallel, 

 for Parry, who reached S2' 44' X. lat., detected no trace of islands or continent 



Fig. S7. — Smeerenbekg. 

 Scale 1 : 5CiO,CiOO. 



27 to &4 Over 54 



Tathoms. Fathoms. 



.^^_^^^ 5 Miles. 



thence towards the pole. The desert skies, chequered by no flights of migratory 

 birds, and the absence of icebergs or any floating masses more than 35 or 40 feet 

 high, show that there can be no great extent of land in the direction of the po'e, 

 which several navi^rators have endeavoured to reach from this quarter. According 



