Prior to the explorations of Sir Martin Conway in 1896, it was supposed that this inland ice extended over all the islands of the group, an area exceeding twenty thousand square miles. He, however, proved that so far as West Spitsbergen was concerned, this was not the case. Crossing it he found much of the interior a complex of mountains and valleys, amongst which were many glaciers, as in Central Europe, but with no continuous covering of ice, each glacier being a separate unit with its own drainage system and catchment area, the valleys boggy and relatively fertile, the hillsides bare of snow in summer up to more than a thousand feet above sea-level. In the rise of the country from the sea it seems to have come up as a plain which did not reach the level of perpetual snow, so that as it rose it was cut down into valleys in the usual way by the agency of water pouring off from the plateau over its edge down a frost-split rock-face, the valleys gently sloped, the head necessarily steep owing to the face of the cliff being stripped off as the waterfalls cut their way back. Since Nordenskiöld's first expedition we have learnt much of the geology and physical features of Spitsbergen; and we hear no more of the poverty of its flora and fauna. Now it has become a summer tourist resort we are yearly increasing our knowledge of this land of no thunderstorms, for centuries the largest uninhabited area on the globe, the only considerable stretch on which there is no trace of human occupation before its discovery by the moderns in 1596, when it was found by Barents and his companions. CHAPTER III NOVAYA ZEMLYA Van Heemskerck and Barents reach Ice Haven—The ship in the ice—The first crew to winter in the Arctic—The house the Dutch built—The bears—The foxes—Intense cold—Twelfth Eve rejoicings—Preparations for departure—Death of Barents—The boat voyage—Meeting with Rijp—Admiral Jacob Van Heemskerck—Carlsen at Ice Haven—Finds the house as described by De Veer—The relics at the Hague—Gardiner finds the powder-flask—Gundersen finds the translation of the voyage of Pet and Jackman—Second voyage of Hudson—His third voyage—De Vlamingh—Russian explorers.