The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1907-08-14
NO MANS LAND.
Cnowned Spitzbcrgen Peopled Only
by Thousand Dead.

inc name OIL 0pllZenDerSen mas
been spoken oftener during the last
few months than for many long
year. The fact that the Wellman air.
ship has been building there is re-
ing something like household word.
Its history is romantic.
During the most profitable period
of the Dutch fishery, 162035, says
the National Geographic Magazine,
over 800 Dutch ships and more than
$4,000 men annually visited Spitz-
enbergen more than $4,000 men
These conditions led to its summer
colonization.
The most remarkable of these es-
adjustments was at Amsterdam Is
land, where on broad plain grew
up the astonishing village of Smeer-
enberg. Here, nearly within ten de-
grees of the north pole, 10 degrees
80 minutes north, for score Of
years prevailed an amount of COM
fort and prosperity that can scarce
ly be credited by the visitor of to-
day.
Several hundred ships, with more
than 10000 men, visited it annually.
These consisted not alone of the
whalers and land laborers, but of
the camp followers who always fire.
quent centers of great and rapid pro-
ductivity.
In the train of the whalers fol-
lowed merchant vessels loaded with
wine, brandy, tobacco and edibles
unknown in the plain fare of the
hardy fishers. Shops were opened,
drinking booths erected, wooden and
even brick tile covered houses con-
structed for the laborers or visiting
whalemen.
Even bakeries were constructed
and as in Holland the sound of the
bakers horn, announcing hot, fresh
bread, drew crowds of eager purchas
ers. If report ecrs not, even the
Dutch frau of 1850 was sufficiently
enterprising to visit Smeerenberg.
The shore fisheries soon failed
tabout 1640), and the Dutch being
driven to the remote and open seas
Smeerenberg fell into decadence: the
furnaces were demolished, the copper
caldrons removed and the too.s and
utensils of the cooper and whaler
only the polar bear re-
NAMED to guard the ruins of the ia
nous Spitzbergen fair.
But human interest in Smeeren- |
berg did not pass away with its van
ishing habitations, for on the shores |
of that bay rest the last mortal re-
mains of thousand stalwart fishers. |
who closed their lives of toll and !
struggle in view of the icy seas.
Spitzbergen of recent years has
been claiming great attention. A
coal deposit of considerable value |
has been found on the island, and |
it has become a favorite resort for |
hunters and excursionists.
1t is known as No Mans Land. as |
it belongs to no country, Norway and |
Sweden being unable to agree as to |
its possession. Last year about half
million dollars worth of oil, furs
and eiderdown were obtained from
the island
Some authority ought soon to take !
possession of the archipelago, for
the game-sueh as reindeer. polar
bears, ptarmigan, geese. ducks ana
other birds-formerly so plentiful,
is being wantonly exterminated. A
party Of tourists last summer killed )
more than 100 reindeer, leaving the !
earcasses where they fell and taking |
with them only a few of the finest |
heads and antlers. Eiderduck nests |
are robbed of eggs. which Norway on |
her northern coasts and Denmark in |
Greenland protect by law.