[1] K. Vetenskaps Akad. Hand. Bihang, ix., No. 2, p. 46.
[2] This is doubtless the direction of West Fjord of Wijde Bay, but it seems doubtful whether any considerable proportion of it can be visible from the summit of De Geer’s Peak. All along the south-east side of West Fjord lies a continuous range of hills, a photograph of which is now before me. The lowest point of this range between Cape Petermann and Mount Sir Thomas at the head of the fjord can scarcely be as low as 500 feet, whilst almost the whole of the range is 1000 feet high. The average width of the fjord is about two miles, but just at one point it is five miles wide. The height of De Geer’s Peak is given as over 1200 metres, say 4000 feet. Its distance from West Fjord is about thirty geographical miles. If the intervening hill range happens to sink below the level of about 600 feet, exactly in the line of sight to the place where the fjord is five miles wide, the extreme edge of the water would just be visible; yet, even then, no considerable body of water could be seen. But De Geer states that there were no hills between the fjord and his peak. Is it not possible that what he saw was the East Fjord, at whose head are no mountains? Some undetected iron in the rock on which he stood might be responsible for the compass deviation. The rocks of Spitsbergen are full of such surprises.
[4] “Die Schwedischen Expeditionen nach Spitzbergen und BÄren-Eiland ausgefÜhrt in den Jahren 1861, 1864, and 1868 unter Leitung von O. Torell und A. E. NordenskiÖld. Aus dem Schwedischen Übersetzt von L. Passarge.” Jena, 1869. 8vo, pp. 470 et seq.
[5] Mount Chydenius is, however, north-west of Mount Edlund.
[6] These are continued northward by some lower snowy hills ending in the bold Fair Foreland or Birds’ Cape.
[7] The first English explorers of Spitsbergen, Hudson and other servants of the Moscovy Company, formally took possession of the country on behalf of the King of England. They named it “King James, his New Land.” This name has long been disused. Now that the interior of the island begins to be explored, names are needed for the different natural divisions of the country. I have therefore given the name of King James Land to the mountainous area included between Ice Fjord and Foreland Sound.
[8] I cannot give the exact altitude, because Nielsen, who was carrying the instruments, dropped the aneroid here and smashed it before I had registered the reading.
[9] It is greatly to be regretted that no scale is attached to these six maps of harbours, which cannot therefore be applied with certainty to any general map of Spitsbergen.
[10] Garwood was fortunate enough to discover a fine specimen of this.
[11] The position as determined by the Swedes does not agree with the position determined by the Austrians.—Vide R. von Barry, Zwei Fahrten, &c. Vienna, 1894. 8vo.
[12] As to the whole project, see: N. DunÉr and A. E. NordenskiÖld, FÖrberedande UndersÖkningar rÖrande utfÖrbarheten af en GradmÄtning pÅ Spetsbergen. K. Svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd. vi. No. 8. In 1891 a Swedish committee was appointed to reconsider the question, and a further scheme was drawn up by Professor Rosen and published as a pamphlet in 1893. It has now been decided by the Swedish Academy of Sciences that the scheme shall be carried out, perhaps in conjunction with Russia, and expeditions to that end are to be sent to Spitsbergen in 1898 and following years.
[13] A translation of his interesting account of this expedition is inserted as an appendix to the present volume, by kind permission of Baron NordenskiÖld.
[14] The summit of the Aiguille Verte is 3700 feet above the Jardin.
[15] Herr Imfeld’s new map is the best on which to examine this theory.
[16] The Walliser Viescher Glacier was similarly employed.
[19] Translated by the Rev. E. Shepherd from Herr G. NordenskiÖld’s paper, RedogÖrelse fÖr den Svenska Expeditionen till Spetsbergen 1890, published in Bihang till K. Svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd. 17, Afd. 2, No. 3, pp 10-17.
