NORVĂˆGE
615
SVALBARD
Svalbard is the administrative name of Bear Island and Spitsbergen, together with the adjoining islands White Island, King Karl's Land, and Hope Island. The total area is about 65.000 square km. The Norwegian interests in this area, as reflected by the literature, are those raised by hunting and fishing, mining, and scientific activity. Soon after the voyage of W. Barentz, 1596. the huntin gof the Greenland whale had its great period in the Spitsbergen waters, and already at this time the sovereignty of the islands was claimed by the King of Norway (RĂŚstad 1912). Some years before 1800 the Norwegian hunting of seals, bears, foxes, walrus, etc., in Svalbard began. This many-sided arctic hunting, which has been the point of departure for Norway's political claims and interests not only in Svalbard, but also in other arctic regions, has been subject to historical studies particularly by Isachsen (1921B, 1921 C, 1929. Further : Utdrag av Tromso og omegns sjofarts historie 1929, KnipowitschWolleboek 1907, Iversen 1927, Nansen 1924. Confined to hunting in Svalbard proper are : Norberg 1918, Isachsen 1920). The history of the coal mining in Svalbard has been touched upon in a great many papers dealing with the conditions in this area in general. The best and most modern books on this matter are Hoel 1926 1 and, for Bear Island, Horn and Orvin 1928 (see also other papers by Hoel. Further : Holmsen 1911, Spitsbergen og Bjornoya 1924). The modern Norwegian survey work and scientific investigations in Svalbard began with the year 1906, and have been continued every year since then 2. A very detailed and complete 1. This book contains a bibliography of Norwegian and Swedish Parliamentary Papers concerning the Attitude of these States towards Coal Mining in Svalbard. 2. The results of the Prince of Monaco's expeditions in 1906 and 1907 under the leadership of Gunnar Isachsen were published under the title of Exploration du Nord-Ouest du Spitsberg entreprise sous les auspices