thing of importance; the coast of Nova Zembla was rendered unapproachable by the ice. On passing through Waigatz, the Dutch fell in with a Russian boat from Petchora, sewed together with ropes, in quest of walrus' teeth, seals, and fowls. From the Russians they learned that in nine or ten weeks the cold would be so intense, and the rivers frozen so hard, that men might pass over the ice to Tatary. From the Samoyeds, whom they conversed with here, they learned that five days' sailing to the north-east would bring them to a point of land beyond which the coast took a south-easterly direction. This piece of intelligence was received with great joy, as tending to confirm their hopes of a passage to China. But as the cold was now severe, and the weather unfavourable, it was resolved to return home; and the fleet arrived safely in the Maes on the 18th of November.

Two expensive expeditions having thus terminated in disappointment, the states-general felt no longer disposed to prosecute the discovery of a north-eastern passage. Yet, unwilling to relinquish the hope, and aware of the benefits that must accrue to the state from fostering a maritime spirit in the people, they issued a proclamation offering a certain reward to such persons as should accomplish a voyage to China by the desired route. The merchants of Amsterdam were thus encouraged to fit out two ships, the command of which they entrusted to the experienced pilot Barentz. He sailed at an earlier period than on his preceding voyage, and by the 1st of June had reached so high a latitude that he had no night. On the 9th he arrived at Bear (afterwards called Cherry) Island, where the Dutch killed a bear whose skin measured twelve feet

in length. Ten days afterwards they discovered land to the eastward, and found by observation they were in latitude 80° 11'. This is unquestionably the first discovery of Spitzbergen. The Dutch were surprised to find that this northern land was covered with good herbage, and supplied with herds of deer, while Nova Zembla, four degrees to the south, was a bleak and barren desert. Here also they found a multitude of red geese, such as

visit some parts of Holland in the winter, but of which, as our author says, "it was never known till this time where they hatched their eggs; so that some men have taken upon them to write that they sit upon trees in Scotland that hang over the water, and such eggs as fall from them down into the water become young geese, and swim there out of the water; but those that fall upon the land burst in sunder and are lost." Thus the fable of the barnacles was supposed to be for the first time experimentally refuted.

From Spitzbergen the two ships steered south-west till they arrived at Bear Island: and here they agreed to part company; Jan Cornelis wishing to examine the east coast of Spitzbergen, while Barentz hoped to find the passage to the eastward in a lower parallel. He steered accordingly for Nova Zembla, where by the first week in August he had reached the latitude of 77°. But strong winds from the east opposing his progress, he was obliged to make fast the ship to an immense iceberg, which soon after burst into innumerable fragments with a sudden explosion. Being forced to return, they reached with difficulty Icehaven, in lat. 73° 50', on the 26th, and here the ice which had beset them in the voyage immediately closed them up. The unhappy crew, now reduced to seventeen persons, found themselves under the necessity of passing the winter in this dreary and inhospitable spot. Luckily for them, the drift-wood on the shore was sufficiently abundant to supply them with fuel and with the materials for a house. They calmly prepared to meet the difficulties of their situation; and the journal of their sufferings is rendered doubly interesting by their patience and resignation. It is difficult to conceive, and impossible to describe in adequate language, the feelings of men thus doomed to an abode of darkness, desolation, and intense cold, where bears and foxes are the only inhabitants of the forlorn scene. On the 4th of November the last rays of the sun forsook them, and the cold increased until it became almost too intense for endurance. Their wine and beer were frozen and

⚫ deprived of their strength. By means of great fires, of applying heated stones to their feet, and wrapping themselves in double fox-skin coats, they were just able to keep themselves from being frozen. But in searching for drift-wood they were obliged to endure acute pain and to brave imminent danger. They were also frequently attacked by bears, which fearlessly assaulted their wooden hut. But they found means to kill some of those animals, the fat of which they used for their lamps. It is remarkable, that when the sun disappeared the bears also took their departure, and then the white foxes came in great numbers. These animals, which served at once for food and clothing, were easily taken by traps set on the roof of the house.

When the 19th of December arrived, these unhappy men derived comfort from the consideration that the season of darkness had half expired, and that with the return of the sun they would find new resources and means of preservation. Their spirits were not so far sunk as to prevent them from celebrating Twelfth-eve with an extra allowance of wine and with games. The gunner was made king of Nova Zembla," which is at least 200 miles long, and lyeth between two seas.' At length the joyful moment arrived. On the 27th of January the entire disc of the sun was visible above the horizon, to the surprise of Barentz, who did not expect its appearance for fourteen days to come. But the calculation of Barentz was undoubtedly erroneous; while, on the other hand, the narrative cannot be easily explained; for, under ordinary circumstances of refraction, the appearance of the sun would seem to have been premature by seven or eight days. The appearance of the northern limb of the sun above the horizon on the 24th of January, in lat. 76° N., supposes a refraction of nearly three degrees. With the light of the sun the bears also returned. The weather grew more boisterous and inclement, so that it was June before they could set about repairing their two boats: for the Iship was too much injured by the ice to be again re

fitted by their feeble exertions. On the 13th of that month they prepared to quit their wretched abode; but Barentz first drew up in writing, and left in the wooden hut, a list of their names, with an account of their misfortunes, and a description of what had befallen them while residing there. They then left Icy Haven in two small boats. But Barentz, enfeebled by sickness and anxiety, was unable to profit from the gleam of hope which now broke in upon them. He died on the 26th, to the great affliction of the crew, who placed unbounded confidence in his skill and experience. There are many instances on record of long voyages performed through the ocean in open boats; but, perhaps, there is not one of so extraordinary a character as the present, in which two small boats ventured to cross the frozen ocean, more than 1100 miles, continually threatened by masses of floating ice, liable to the attack of bears, and exposed for upwards of forty days to the extremities of cold, famine, sickness, and fatigue. At length the exhausted crews arrived at Cola, where they found three Dutch ships, in which they embarked, and reached the Maes in safety in October, 1597.

The unfortunate issue of all the voyages hitherto undertaken in the cause of northern discovery did not produce the discouragement that might have been expected. The lucrative monopoly enjoyed by the Spaniards of the commerce of the East, magnified in the eyes of political rivals, was a temptation as strong as it was permanent. The first voyage of the English to the East Indies proved a miserable failure. But captain Lancaster, on his return from it, brought back the information that the passage to the Indies by the west was in latitude 62° 30′ N. This piece of intelligence, which had no better foundation than the fabulous achievements of some Spanish navigators, gave rise to an expedition despatched in 1602 under the command of captain Weymouth, but which was not productive of any advantage.

The rapid progress of navigation and geographical

discoveries in the sixteenth century was favoured by the competition of the Spaniards and the Portuguese, and the ardour with which they disputed the possession of the opposite hemisphere. The hostilities which sprang up in the course of that century between the Spanish and English nations introduced a third party to struggle for the prize. The Dutch, forced into the war of independence by the tyranny of Philip, and encouraged by the example of the English, were urged by prudence as well as animosity to snatch from the Spaniards a share of the lucrative commerce of the East. The political movement, thus originating in peculiar circumstances, was soon propagated amongst neutral states; and nations at first indifferent spectators of the contest eagerly joined in the race, when a prospect of advantage was opened to view. During the first expeditions towards the north-west, the Danes, who might have been supposed to have felt the deepest interest in the discovery of Greenland, looked on with indifference until the sanguine representations of the English navigators flattered them with the hopes of commercial profit. In 1605, the king of Denmark caused an expedition to be fitted out to explore the coasts of Greenland. Three small vessels were placed under the command of admiral Lindenau; but most of his inferior officers, and among others James Hall the chief pilot, were Englishmen. The vice-admiral's ship, commanded by a Dane, was deterred by the difficulties of navigating among the ice on the coast of Greenland, and stood away to the southward: but Hall persevered, and coasted the shore of that country as far as latitude 69°, discovering many good sounds, bays, and rivers, and meeting with great quantities of drift-wood, the presence of which occasioned him much surprise. He wished to persist in his northerly course, but his crew proved refractory; and having put on shore two Danish malefactors, who had been brought out for that purpose, he steered towards the south and returned home.

The following year, four small vessels were despatched ·