Evening star., 1928-04-23
MINERALS MINED
At Sp|TzBERCEN
Land Reached by Wilkins Is
Rich With Arctic
Deposits.

Spityhergen, landing place of Capt
George II. wilkins, has unique in
ferest because it is one of the few
Arctic or Antarctic lands that are being
made to yield up minerals TO the tenn
rerate zones. according to a bulletin
from the National Geographic Society
''The northern tip OF Alaska to which
n few Government officials push each
Summer, may seem all too close To the
North Pole for the average dweller of
the warmer regions Of the earth To live
in unless he is pursuing scientific in
veStigationS." SAYS the bulletin. In
Spityhergen. however, which is 600
miles closer 10 the top OF the world,
several hundred ordinary men Of
Europe and America are making their
homes the year round while they strip
coal from beneath the ice-covered
mountains. II is excellent coal, too.
and there is every reason 10 believe
that the mining operations will grow
steadily
Coal Is Discovered.
The discovery early in the twentieth
century that SpitEbergen'S coal under
lies large areas brought ii suddenly
back to the worlds attention and made
sovereignty over 1t we'll worth claiming
after it had been abandoned for gen.
erationS as no-manS land. BarentS.
q Dutchman. discovered Spitzbergcn in
1896, according TO the usual records;
but the Nnrwegisns claim that their
seamen visited the islands at earlier
dates Henry Hudson. searching for a
Northern passage 10 the Orient in 1907
learned Of the vast number of whales
near the islands and as a result SpitZ-
bergen'S waters became for a time the
worlds greatest whale fishery.
The Dutch were foremost in this
development BY the time OF America s
Revolutionary War. whalerS from the
Netherlands had taken about Sl0o. .000.-
nn0 worth of whale products from the
region. Catches became so great in the
early years Of the exploitation that the
ships were embarrassed TO haul the
hlubber home.
A thriving summer town Smeeren-
berg. was established and flouriShed for
score OF years 1t was an anomalous
community. Dutch town in the frozen
Arctic. with its shops. drinking places
and bakeries, IN addition TO the oil re-
fnerses. cooperage establishments and
snithieS of the whaling industry When
the whales in the immediate neighbor-
sftfRG Va AktS &S4dkiJS NtIG 0SSipNtU dliU
the whalers had to go farther afield
for their catches, Smeerenberg dwindled
away About the only reminder of this
one-ttme thriving Dutch community is
the cemetery of a thousand or more
graves in the cherries. frozen earth.
Sovereignty Established.
In 1920 treaty signed by most of
the leading European nations and the
United States recognized the sovereignty
OF Norway over Spitzbergen. The is
lands have an area roughly OF $4,000
square miles. about that of West Vir-A
ginis. Its lofty. needle-like peaks are
mantled almost from bottom to top in
perpetual snow. and between are huge
glaciers One great ice river, the Queen
Maud Glacier. is so miles wide
The iIl-starred expedition Of the
Swedish explorer, Andree. who hoped 10
reach the North Pole by balloon. took
10 the air from Spiizbergen in 1897.
The fate of the members of the expedi-
ton was never learned A few message
bnoys dropped the day of the start were
found near Spitzbergen. No later word
eag received
Richard K. Byrd and Floyd Bennett took
on Tor their flight to the North Pole
h 1857 Shortly afterward Roald
Amundsen and Gen Umberto Mobile in
the Norge left the same port for their
trip across the Pole 70 Alaska Mobile
with his nav dirigible, the Italia, is
expected &c arrive soon al Kings Bay.
SpitZoergen. from Germany"