70. MIDNIGHT SUN OFF SPITZBERGEN.
CHAPTER X.
SPITZBERGEN—BEAR ISLAND—JAN MEYEN.
The west Coast of Spitzbergen.—Ascension of a Mountain by Dr. Scoresby.—His Excursion along the Coast.—A stranded Whale.—Magdalena Bay.—Multitudes of Sea-birds.—Animal Life.—Midnight Silence.—Glaciers.—A dangerous Neighborhood.—Interior Plateau.—Flora of Spitzbergen.—Its Similarity with that of the Alps above the Snow-line.—Reindeer.—The hyperborean Ptarmigan.—Fishes.—Coal.—Drift-wood.—Discovery of Spitzbergen by Barentz, Heemskerk, and Ryp.—Brilliant Period of the Whale-fishery.—Coffins.—Eight English Sailors winter in Spitzbergen, 1630.—Melancholy Death of some Dutch Volunteers.—Russian Hunters.—Their Mode of wintering in Spitzbergen.—Scharostin.—Walrus-ships from Hammerfest and Tromsö.—Bear or Cherie Island.—Bennet.—Enormous Slaughter of Walruses.—Mildness of its Climate.—Mount Misery.—Adventurous Boat-voyage of some Norwegian Sailors.—Jan Meyen.—Beerenberg.
The archipelago of Spitzbergen consists of five large islands: West Spitzbergen, North-east Land, Stans Foreland, Barentz Land, Prince Charles Foreland; and of a vast number of smaller ones, scattered around their coasts. Its surface is about equal to that of two-thirds of Scotland; its most southern point (76° 30´ N. lat.) lies nearer to the Pole than Melville Island; and Ross Islet, at its northern extremity (80° 49´ N. lat.), looks out upon the unknown ocean, which perhaps extends without interruption as far as the Straits of Bering.
Of all the Arctic countries that have hitherto been discovered, Grinnell Land and Washington alone lie nearer to the Pole; but while these ice-blocked regions can only be reached with the utmost difficulty, the western and north-western coasts of Spitzbergen, exposed to the mild south-westerly winds, and to the influence of the Gulf Stream, are frequently visited, not only by walrus-hunters and Arctic explorers, but by amateur travellers and sportsmen.
The eastern coasts are far less accessible, and in parts have never yet been accurately explored. As far as they are known, they are not so bold and indented as the western and north-western coasts, which, projecting in mighty capes or opening a passage to deep fjords, have been gnawed into every variety of fantastic form by the corroding power of an eternal winter, and justify, by their endless succession of jagged spikes and break-neck acclivities, the name of Spitzbergen, which its first Dutch discoverers gave to this land of “serrated peaks.”
The mountains on the west coast are very steep, many of them inaccessible, and most of them dangerous to climb, either from the smooth hard snow with which they are encrusted even in summer, or from the looseness of the disintegrated stones which cover the parts denuded by the sun, and give way under the slightest pressure of the foot.
More than one daring seaman has paid dearly for his temerity in venturing to scale these treacherous heights. The supercargo, or owner, of the very first Dutch whaler that visited Spitzbergen (1612) broke his neck in attempting to climb a steep mountain in Prince Charles Foreland, and Barentz very nearly lost several of his men under similar circumstances. Dr. Scoresby, who in the course of his whaling expeditions touched at Spitzbergen no less than seventeen times, was more successful in scaling a mountain 3000 feet high, near Mitre Cape, though the approach to the summit was by a ridge so narrow that he could only advance by sitting astride upon its edge. But the panorama which he beheld, after having attained his object, amply repaid him for the danger and fatigue of clambering for several hours over loose stones, which at every step rolled with fearful rapidity into the abyss beneath.