264 
A VOYAGE TO BPITZBEPGEN. 
hold with Arctic produce, and this account applied to 
all the few foreign whalers we had met throughout our 
cruise. 
We bore down the coast to Green Harbour, where 
we found two fishing schooners at anchor; from them 
we obtained some salmon, said to be peculiar to Spitz- 
bergen. They had been captured by a net which had 
been the property of the former Russian settlers, and 
although this net had remained unused for years, it 
was perfect in its preservation. We found in this fact 
fresh evidence, if further evidence were needed, of the 
strange effect this peculiar climate has in keeping every¬ 
thing exposed to it intact. Further up this bay we 
landed at a place where coal is indicated on the chart, 
and sure enough we found a ricli-looking coal, good 
enough for most purposes, considering the small por¬ 
tion we gathered, in order that we might have it tested 
in the galley fire, had been collected from the surface 
only. Some specimens we brought back gave promise 
of a much finer quality to be found at some distance 
below the surface, but we had no opportunity during 
our short visit of testing it in that particular way. 
This seam of coal crops out all along the surface for 
some very considerable distance. We once made in¬ 
quiries of those on board the steamer off Red Beach 
if they had used this coal, but it was at once con- 
