fciPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 131 



MIDNIGHT bUiJ OFi^ SPITZBEBGEN. 



CHAPTER X. 



SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 



The west Coast of Spitzbergen. — Ascension of a Mountain by Dr. Scoresby. — His Excursion along the 

 Coast. — A stranded Whale. — Magdalena Bay. — Multitudes of Sea-birds, — Animal Life. — Midnight 

 Silence. — Glaciers, — A dangerous Neighborhood. — Interior Plateau, — Flora of Spitzbergen. — Its 

 Similarity with that of the Alps above the Snow-line. — Reindeer. — The hyperborean Ptarmigan. — 

 Fishes. — Coal. — Drift-wood. — Discovery of Spitzbergen by Barentz, Heemskerk, and Kyp. — Brilliant 

 Period of the Whale-fishery. — Coffins. — Ei^ht English Sailors winter in Spitzbergen, 1630. — Melan- 

 choly Death of some Dutch Volunteers. — Russian Hunters. — Their Mode of wintering in Spitzber- 

 gen, — Scharos in, — Walrus-ships from Hammerfest and Tromso. — Bear or Cherie Island. — Bennet. 

 — Enormous Slaughte r of Walruses. — Mildness of its Climate. — Mount Misery. — Adventurous Boat- 

 voyage of some Norwegian Sailors. — Jan Meyeu. — Beerenberg. 



'T^HE archipelago of Spitzbergen consists of five large islands : West Spitz= 

 bergen, North-east Land; Stans Foreland, Barentz Land, Prince Charles 

 Foreland ; and of a vast number of smaller ones, scattered around their coasts. 

 Its surface is about equal to that of two-thirds of Scotland : its most southern 

 point (76° 30' N". lat.) lies nearer to the Pole than Melville Island ; and Ross 

 Islet, at its northern extremity (80° 49' N. lat.), looks out upon the unknown 

 ocean, which perhaps extends without interruption as far as the Straits of 

 Bering. 



Of all the Arctic countries that have hitherto been discovered, Grinnell 



