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In Iceland, in Spitsbergen, in Kamchatka, and in other frigid lands large areas are thickly strewn with sharp-edged fragments into which the rock has been shattered by frost. We must reckon the roots of plants and trees among the agents which break rocks into pieces.
To the east one only existed somewhere about the eightieth degree of latitude, the Esk, upon the island of Jan Mayen, not far from the frozen regions of Spitsbergen. It was not craters that were wanting, and many of them were big enough to vomit a whole army; all I wished to know was the particular one towards which we were making with such fearful velocity.
Accordingly, a committee was appointed to deliberate on the state of the British fishery; and upon their report a bill was founded for encouraging the whale fishery on the coast of Spitsbergen, by a bounty of forty shillings per ton for every ship equipped for that undertaking.
The result was a temporary agreement between the English and Dutch companies for using separate parts of Spitsbergen as their bases, all others being excluded. Meanwhile the dispute was kept open; and despite conferences and negotiations neither side showed any disposition to yield. Matters reached an acute stage in 1618.
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