Spitzbergen, a group of Arctic islands, lying 400 miles N. of Norway, and consisting of West Spitzbergen (15,260 sq. m.), North-east Land (4040 sq. m.), Stans Foreland (2210 sq. m.), the three islands called King Charles Land or Wiche Island (also identified with Gillis Land), Barents Land, Prince Charles Foreland, and several smaller islands and clusters of islets. The whole is ice-bound, and there are magnificent glaciers on the eastern shores, especially on North-east Land, where Dickson's glacier has a length of more than 150 miles. A thick ice-sheet covers the whole of the interior of the larger islands; but several sharp peaks—whence the name Spitz ('needle-like')—bergen ('mountains')—project above it. These peaks are generally close upon 2000 feet in altitude; but one at least, Hornsund Tind, at the southern extremity of West Spitzbergen, reaches 4560 feet, and on the small island of Prince Charles Foreland, lying to the west of West Spitzbergen, there are peaks nearly 5000 feet in height. The shores of West Spitzbergen, except on the east, are deeply indented with fjords; two, Ice Fjord, stretching north-east and north, and Wiide Bay, coming southwards, almost meet and cut the island in two. The north-west shores of North-east Land are also very much broken. The eastern shores generally are difficult of access, owing to their being swept by a cold Arctic current from the north. But the Gulf Stream sweeps up along the west side of the group, and very considerably modifies the climate. The mean yearly climate seems to vary from 10° to 16° F. in different years. The vegetation, which was wonderfully luxuriant in the Miocene period, is now very scanty; except for the polar willow and a couple of berry-bushes, it consists principally of saxifrages and mosses. The reindeer were, from markings on their ears (said by Nordenskiöld to be due to the cold), believed to come hither for the summer only! The arctic fox and polar bear are the only other land animals that frequent the islands, though there are vast swarms of sea-fowl of various kinds (gulls, petrels, the eider-duck, wild geese, roches, the snow-bunting, and others), several of which make these islands their breeding-quarters. The sea-waters round the coasts are exceptionally rich in marine fauna. During the 16th and 17th centuries large fleets of whalers from the North Sea countries and from Russia used to make these islands their headquarters during the summer. But the whales have been almost exterminated, and the seals are rapidly approaching the same condition owing to reckless slaughter. The only frequenters of the group now are Norwegian walrus hunters and Swedish scientific explorers, who since 1858 have been unwearied in their efforts to obtain full information about the islands of the archipelago. There are no permanent inhabitants; but at times hardy Russian and Norwegian hunters have stayed one and occasionally more winters on the group. The Spitzbergen islands were discovered by Barents in 1596, and have been made the starting-point of attempts to reach the North Pole. Here in 1861 and 1864 Nordenskiöld measured an arc of meridian. Sir M. Conway explored the main island in 1896.
See Lord Dufferin's Letters from High Latitudes (1857); Kropotkine's paper in Ency. Brit.; and Sir W. M. Conway, The First Crossing of Spitzbergen (1897).