344 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
far out of the range of reasonable hope that assistance 
can reach them in case of difficulty (for once the little 
Danish settlements on the Greenland coast are left, 
they bid farewell to their last place of call) ; and if, 
perhaps, they arrive at the barrier of frozen ice which 
rises like a wall at the narrow neck of the inlet from 
the Arctic ocean, they must leave their ships and 
proceed over the rugged summit of the ice barrier 
for a distance of some twenty-five miles, to come out, 
where ? On the coast of the sea they would fain 
embark upon, far from their supplies, and out of reach 
of help of every kind, to begin to encounter those 
difficulties which surely must exist, but of whose 
nature or importance they are by the circumstances of 
the case utterly ignorant, to latitudes, the Eskimo tell 
us, where it is impossible to live. 
It must not be supposed that the contributions of 
various travellers to the easily attained lands of Spits¬ 
bergen and its neighbourhood, have by any means 
exhausted the whole of the Spitzbergen region. So 
far is this from being the case, we have plenty of 
evidence to prove that for many a year Spitzbergen will 
itself afford materials for careful investigation in every 
department of human inquiry. We have evidence, 
from specimens torn off the rocks near the various 
landing-places, of a physical condition of that portion 
