286 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [parti 
of which Nemtinoff's voyage was the precursor, left Arch- 
angel. But Tschitschagoff had the misfortune to meet with 
a bad ice year and did little or nothing. He tried again 
in 1766 and got as far north as 8o° 28', but he was 
stopped by the ice, and the project was given up as 
hopeless. A party of Russians in charge of stores had 
twice wintered in Bell Sound. 
For a century the eastern side of Spitsbergen remained 
almost unknown. It is to the Norwegian sealing captains, 
and to Professor Mohn of Christiania, who watched 
over and utilised their work, that most of our knowledge 
of this side is due. The Norwegian fishery dates from 
about 1820, but for many years they kept on the west 
side, only by degrees working along the north coast to 
the eastward. In 1863, however, the adventurous Captain 
Carlsen completed the circumnavigation of Spitsbergen 
for the first time. In the next year Captains Tobiesen, 
Aarstrom, and Mathilas were not so fortunate. They made 
their way down the east coast, but, becoming closely 
beset, were obliged to abandon their vessels and retreat 
in boats up Hinlopen Strait, traversing 700 miles before 
they were picked up. In 1872 Captain Altman sailed 
up the east side from the south, and sighted Wyche's 
Land, which was discovered by the English in 1617. It 
proved to be composed of three islands. Captain Nils 
Johnsen succeeded in landing on one of these islands, 
and named a lofty cliff Cape Nordenskiold. In 1872 
Captain Nilsen in the Freia also sighted the Wyche Islands, 
naming a high mountain Harfagrehangen, it being the 
thousandth anniversary of Norway's union into one 
kingdom. 
The scientific researches of the Swedes in Spitsbergen 
were begun in 1858. They were undertaken to institute 
a preliminary survey for measuring an arc of meridian, 
and also for geological and biological collections. In 
1864 Nordenskiold and Duner took astronomical observa- 
tions at eighty different positions on shore, and fixed the 
heights of numerous mountain peaks. In 1868 the Swedes, 
in the steamer Sofia, reached the latitude of 8i° 42' N. 
and in 1870 Baron von Heuglin and Count Zeil, in a vessel 
commanded by the Norwegian captain Nils Isaksen, ex- 
plored Edge and Barentsz Islands, and Freeman strait, 
