42 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN 
Hull, and other private adventurers, on their own ac¬ 
count. The fishery had come to be virtually free to 
any one who chose to engage in it; and, not many years 
later, the trade was formally laid open to all adven¬ 
turers. 
A description of Spitzbergen, condensed from Mr. 
Scoresby’s “ Account of the Arctic Regions,” may suit¬ 
ably conclude these introductory notes: — 
“ Spitzbergen extends farthest towards the north of any country 
yet discovered. It is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean, or Greenland 
Sea; and does not appear to have ever been inhabited. It lies between 
the latitudes 76° 30' and 80° 7' north, and between the longitudes of 
9°, and perhaps 22°, east; but some of the neighboring islands extend 
at least as far north as 80° 40', and still farther towards the east than 
the mainland. 
“ This country exhibits many interesting views, with numerous ex¬ 
amples of the sublime. Its stupendous hills, rising by steep acclivities 
from the very margin of the ocean to an immense height; its surface, 
contrasting the native, protruding, dark-colored rocks with the burden 
of purest snow and magnificent ices, — altogether constitute an extraor¬ 
dinary and beautiful picture. 
“ The whole of the western coast is mountainous and picturesque; 
and, though it is shone upon by a four-months’ sun every year, its 
snowy covering is never wholly dissolved. The valleys — opening 
towards the coast, and terminating in the background with a trans¬ 
verse chain of mountains — are chiefly filled with everlasting ice. 
Along the west coast, the mountains take their rise from within a 
league of the sea, and some from its very edge. Few tracts of table¬ 
land of more than a league are to be seen; and, in many places, the 
blunt terminations of the mountain ridges project beyond the regular 
line of the coast, and overhang the waters of the ocean. The southern 
part of Spitzbergen consists of groups of insulated mountains, fre¬ 
quently terminating in points, and occasionally in acute peaks not 
unlike spires; but a low flat, of about forty square miles in surface, 
constitutes the termination of the coast. The middle of Charles’s 
Island is occupied by a mountain chain about thirty miles in length. 
Along the northern shore of Spitzbergen, and towards the north-east, 
