THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

The general aspect of this gloomy and sterile country affords a scene truly picturesque and sombre.  The shores are rugged, bold and terrific, being in many places formed by lofty, black, inaccessible rocks, some of which taper to exceedingly high points, and are altogether bare, and almost destitute of vegetation.  The entire face of the country exhibits a wild, dreary landscape, of amazingly high sharp-pointed mountains, some of which rear their summits above the clouds, and are capped by strata of snow, probably coeval with the creation of the world.

Laing/Spitzbergen, 1818