Bell Island (Franz Josef Land)

Coordinates: 80°00′24″N 49°15′49″E / 80.00667°N 49.26361°E / 80.00667; 49.26361
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bell Island
Russian: Остров Белл
Bell Island with Benjamin Leigh Smith's Eira lodge in foreground
Map
Geography
LocationArctic Ocean
Coordinates80°00′24″N 49°15′49″E / 80.00667°N 49.26361°E / 80.00667; 49.26361
ArchipelagoFranz Josef Land
Highest elevation343 m (1125 ft)
Highest pointBell Mountain
Administration
Russia

Bell Island (Russian: Остров Белл) is a small island in the south-west of the Franz Josef Land archipelago in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. The island was named by English explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith for its bell-shaped mountain, rising steeply from the island's southern coast with the Barents Sea.

History

On July 11, 1880, John Gray's Hope and David Gray's Eclipse met up with the Eira and Leigh Smith. Photographer W.J.A. Grant took a photograph aboard the Eira of Arthur Conan Doyle along with Smith, the Gray brothers, and ship’s surgeon William Neale. This was the Smith exploration of Franz Josef Land that on August 18 resulted in the naming of Cape Flora, Bell Island, Nightingale Sound, Gratton ("Uncle Joe") Island, and Mabel Island.[1]

The island was the first among the Franz Josef archipelago to be visited by

Brusilov Expedition in 1914.[2]

References

External links