The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-09-29
AIN ARCTIC PICNIC.
Plenty sf work for the Hunter to Be
FOund In The S~pIfzbergen Region.

Fnund In The Spifzbereen fs~gfon.
The SpitzberKen region Is not a mere
group Of islets. Its area Is as large as
thatsof Iceland. Northward the Arctic
current keeps@it in grip Of the polar cold,
says the Spectator, On It's south side
the fringe Of the Gulf stream tempers
the air and causes the one climate draw
bach to the Spitzbergen summer, dense
and clinging fogs. which brood over the
adjacent sea. But within the fog-screen
the sur shines bright and clear on the
snow peaks out of a sky of amethyst,
and the landscape looks much as If the
whole mass OF the Swiss Alps had been
sunk in the Polar Sea to a point above
the level OF tree growth. The submerged
valleys become foods. the glaciers-far
larger than any on the Alps-slide down
to these lorids, and break of in ice-
bergs; ptarmigan, or true grouse ac-
cording to Mr.. Abel Chapman, haunt the
lower range, and in place of channels,
| reindeer are found in most of the val
leys. The reindeer are larger than those
of Norway. How either they or the
| grouse subsist in. the winter is one of
the mysteries of animal life in the island,
but the fact that they do survive shows
that we are not yet acquainted with the
limits of vegetable life in Spitzbergen.
The are a of the island is too large and
too little known TO speak with any eer-
tainty Of their capacity as a sporting re-
serve; but it is known that game is nu-
nlerous in some parts, and of a kind n
among surroundings entirely new to or
binary experience. The polar bears and
walrus nave been much killed down, but
when the icepack and drift ice touch the
land. with them come the seal, the polar
bear and the walrus to restock the island.
Ten years ago fifty polar bears were shot
by on ehunter in Hinlopen Straits, be-
tween the two main islands. The chance
of shooting two or three polar bears OF
hunting reindeer under the Arctic sun on
an uninhablted shore, offered WITHIN
eleven days. voyage of London, have no
| parallel in any part of the globe. 1t is
| probables that before long measures will
be taken to preserve the game, ana,
though this viii not extend to the polar
bears, portraits of which, engaged IN
biting the heads of PROSTATE gentlemen
| voyagers, or laying a friendly paw on
| their arms previous to making a meal
off of them, lends such lively interest to,
De Veer's account of the early discov-
and seals is certain to lead to anfincrease
in the numbers of the animal that prey
upon them. Ice fowl swarm in certain
portions of the coast, especially in Ice
Sound, Bell Sound, Horn Sound and the
Aikefjeld, near Lomme. Bay. The three
former are all on the coast of West
Spitzbergen, to the south of the hotel"
in Advent Bay. Here are the home of
the "rotches," and of the most thorough
~ Arctic of all birds, the ivory gull. There
is an immense colony of little auks in
Magdalen Bay, to the north of the West
| Island, and the fiat islets in Ice Sound
thousands of elder duck breed.
The past value and numbers of game
and fowl may be gathered from the his
tory of the islands, so far as human in
terest has been concerned with them.
| Right whale were so numerous in the
seventeenth century that ten thousand
whalers' crews used to meet annually on
the coast during the summer In 1897
the Dutch whaIerS alone caught 1850
whales. The remains of their houses
still exist on the shores of '.Smeering-
berg the old whalers' headquarters. In
time the right whales were nearly killed
off, annd Spitzbergen was left to the
| polar bears. Then Russian hunters sail
ed thither and killed such numbers of
reindeer, walrus and Arctic fox that
these grew scarce, and the Russian
hunters moved off to Nova Zembia. When
the game recovered the N~orwegians be-
gan to visit the island, partly for sport,
partly for profit, and it is due to the re-
ports circulated by them that the Vas
teraalens Company organized their week
ly expeditionsn to the and