THE “LYDIANA” 
345 
of the globe in very remote times which would war¬ 
rant us in concluding that Spitzbergen had its human 
inhabitants indigenous to the soil, or wanderers from 
other regions, and it will be curious if in future 
explorations human remains and implements made 
by human hands will reward the search of ethnolo¬ 
gists. As yet we believe no such discoveries have 
been made, simply because they have not been at¬ 
tempted. Only this year news has come of the dis¬ 
covery, or rather confirmation, of the actual position 
of land to the eastward of Spitzbergen, which hitherto 
has only been indicated on our charts from the vague 
and by no means accurate reports of such explorers 
as Altmann. Skipper Nils Jonson, of Tromso, actually 
landed on this portion of the earth’s crust, having 
sailed on the 8th of May last from his native port to 
Novaya Zemba, in pursuit of oil-bearing animals. 
His vessel was a little yacht called the Lydiana , of 
thirteen commercial lasts (a little over thirty tons), 
having on board a crew of nine men. 
In June he turned his ship’s head towards the west 
side of the great sea, and towards the end of the 
month, in a south-easterly direction from Spitzbergen, 
in the midst of the Polar stream which brought with 
it an immense mass of ice, towards the east side of 
Spitzbergen and Behring’s Land. In July and August 
