SPITZBERGEN.
BY BARNET PHILLIPS.
The Norsemen were once the most famous of all sailors, and in the olden times they just laughed at the dangers of the sea. Not very long ago, by great good luck, there was found on the coast of Norway a small vessel which was hundreds and hundreds of years old, and by looking at the way it was built by the shipwrights of that time we learn that they were first-class mechanics, and knew all about clinker-built vessels.
Away off in the cold seas of the Arctic Ocean, about half way between the coasts of Norway and Greenland, there is a small archipelago, the best-known island of which is called Spitzbergen. Now the very name of this dreary spot suggests a chill and a shiver, for people say, when the fire in the house is out in winter, "It is as cold as Spitzbergen."
When the Norsemen first found this island nobody knows exactly; but it is highly probable that when they went over to Iceland, some seven hundred or eight hundred years ago, they came across it in their track. What is very certain, however, is that Barentz, one of the bravest and kindest of the old Dutch sailors and explorers, landed there in 1596; and what is quite as interesting is the fact that Henry Hudson went to Spitzbergen in 1607.
The island, though it abounds in the grandest scenery, is one of the coldest places on earth during the winter. Great mountains extend along the coast, divided by huge glaciers. Nobody has ever yet tried to travel into the interior, but it is known that there is a plateau or plain there some two thousand feet in height.
In summer you can get to the islands, because the Gulf Stream pours its warm water along a part of the coast, but in winter no ship can approach Spitzbergen; it is all iron-bound. Every year a few small vessels leave the extreme northern ports of Norway, Hammerfest and Tromsö, and go to Spitzbergen to catch whales, seals, and walrus.
Quite lately a United States steam-ship, the Alliance, went to Spitzbergen, and the reason why she sailed for that cold place was because she hoped she might find there some of the brave officers and the gallant crew of the Jeannette, a steam-vessel that sailed on a voyage of discovery in these arctic waters some time ago. The Jeannette had, however, gone into the polar seas by Behring Strait, which is between the American continent and Asia.
Now there was some hope that if even the Jeannette had been lost, a great many of the men might be still alive, who, by working their way slowly along the coast of Siberia and Russia, might have made their way to Spitzbergen. This would not have been so remarkable, for a great Northern explorer, Nordenskjöld, has done this within the last two years, only he worked his way from east to west. But the officers of the United States ship Alliance did not find out anything about the Jeannette at Spitzbergen.
The engravings on the preceding page, taken by an officer on the vessel, show how Spitzbergen looked a couple of months ago. All the vessels seen here have come to fish or to kill seals and walrus.
Many readers might hardly credit it, but a great part of the rocks which abound in Spitzbergen show evidences of volcanic origin, and what is now the coldest place in the world in winter was once probably as hot as Africa is to-day.
When the Alliance went to Iceland, the people there, who are very affectionate, honest, and simple-hearted, were very courteous and polite to her officers. One of these gentlemen having seen a nice Icelandic girl, had her photograph taken, which picture is engraved in this number of Young People. The girl is in her summer dress, but in the winter when she goes out she will just put on a coat of fur, in order to keep comfortable, otherwise she would freeze to death.
Though the people are very poor, and have to work hard to keep themselves from starving, the climate being so cold that hardly anything will grow, yet they are very intelligent. Almost all the Icelanders know how to read and write, and during the long sunless days and nights of their dreary winter they love to pass away the time with books in their hands.
