Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-08-11
Spitzbergen Mines
Peculiar. Problems

| Luis cdrNA<Aty, SpltZDeTSen, july
Is (AP)-Mining in Spitzbergen
| presents peculiar features that are
not met with anywhere else in the
world.
| 1t is long tramp from Longyear
City to the mine entrance across a
| boulder strewn valley between two
snow covered mountain ranges. In
| the spring, the slowly melting snow
turns the valley, really a moraine
into a morass Of slush and mud, with
| rapid little watercourses winding
their way towards the ford.
| Working gangs are hoisted IN
| open cable cars 500 feet up at an
angle Of some 60 degrees to the main
| gallery, which opens out on the
| mountainside and looks from below
| like an ugly black scar.
! From here, galleries run horizon
| tally through the heart of the noun
| tain, with an exit on the other side
| Thus there is a constant supply OF
| fresh air, and the temperature with
| in is constant about five degrees of
! frost all the year around. There is
a remarkable absence CT dust which
| Is kept down by shoveling IL snow
| from outside. This snow never
inelts. and 1t helps TO keep the air
| pure.
Pillars Of solid ice. said to be mill
| lions of years old. and many feet
| thick. form reliable natural sup
ports for the galleries, which are re-
! infcrced by wooden balks. al
The company's engineers are
| proud of their American electric
! traction equipment which conveys
| the coal from the bowels of the
earth to the outlet high up on the
| mountainside, whence an endless
| chain of tips carries it down to the
distant harbor. Much safer. they
say, than the benzine cars used in
the Swedish mine on Braganza Bay
| Their south. Not long ago, a benzine
tank exploded there, fortunately dur
| ing ncnwcrking hours. No one was
killed. but the coal became ignited
and that mine has been burning for
| weeks,
This is really our worst time as
far as labor is concerned said
Sigurd Westby, Spitzbergen manager
Of the Great Norwegian Coal Com
pany. to an Associated Press cor
respondent discussing ways and
| means of recruiting operating stats.
| all of whom have to be imported,
since there are no Spitzbergen
natives" properly speaking.
'At this time of the year, when
| the first boats begin to arrive from
| Norway" he went on, many of our
| fellows get the homing instinct and
| there's no holding them. They have
| to sign a contract for at least one
summer and one winter, but moth
| ing will keep them once the ice
| breaks up and there is a chance of
! going home. Oh yes, many of them
come back after they have spent
their money at Tromso or else
where. Miners wages run to about
30 kroner per day; they are charged
| four kroner for board and lodging
and there are no opportunities for
! spending money here. ADJUSTMENTS
in the way of movies. wireless par
| ties and social entertainments are
| provided for them free in the win
| ter time. so every man has his lit
| tie hoard by the time the sun re-
appears above the horizon, late in
| April"
| People who have spent four con-
! secutive winters in Spitzbergen are
! pretty rare.
Coal is king in Spitzbergen and
everyone talks in terms of coal,
which Is no wonder, seeing that the
| existence of all the thousand odd in
habitants of these islands in depen-
dent upon the production of that
| commodity, since the whaling in
dustry was ruined many decades
ago by reckless slaughtering meth
| DDS employed by the hunters.
or ten mining companies which
own land in the archipelago, the
principal concerns, two Norwegian,
one Dutch and one Swedish, pro-