Since its discovery in 1596 Spitsbergen the beautiful island of arctic Norway has been the
destination of many expeditions from different nations. Some of the most important research on
the island was led by Gunnar Isachsen. The Norwegian army officer and polar scientist collected
valuable topographic and bathymetric data and became the founder of his country's systematic
research on Spitsbergen. In 1912 Fritjof Nansen the popular arctic explorer and scientist and
his assistant Bjørn Helland-Hansen published a summary of the oceanographic observations made
by Isachsen on his last journey to the island in 1910. Reprint of the original edition.
