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02 THIRD Vv YAGE OF THE DUTCH
They followed him with three fhallops and fmall boats: moft of the arms with which they
ftruck him broke on his body. Once alfo on his fide, he darted his paws with fo great a
force againft the ftem of one of the boats, that if he had darted againft the middle of the
vi in the fame manner, there is every appearance he would have overfet it. At daft
they killed him and carried hin on board : his fin was thirteen feet in length.
After this affair they failed in a fhallop for more than a league towards the land,
where they met with a good port, fixteen, twelve, and ten feet in depth 5 ; and entering
farther towards the eaft, they faw two iflands extending eaftward into the fea. On the
weftern fide was a very ieee gulf, and another ifle in the centre, having failed towards
which they ianded and found plenty of wild geefe, and the geefe themfelves in their
nefts, which flew away on feeing them: they killed one, which they dreffed with fome
eo
at hey were of the fame fpecies which come every year in fuch great flocks nto Hol-
land, and efpecially to Wieringen, in the Zuiderzee, between North Holland and
Friefland, it not having been known before where they went to lay. Some authors
had aflerted that thofe eggs were the fruit of tertain trees in Scotland, planted on the
fea fhore, and that thofe which fell to the ground broke to pieces, while thofe which fell
into the fea were immediately hatched ; and that the little goflings fwam as foon_as the
were born. It is not to be wondered at that the place of the nefts of thefe geefe fhould
be unknown, fince it does not appear that any perfon till then had ever failed as far as
lat. 80°, nor that this country had ever been difcovered.
It fhould be remarked, that although this ifland, which thefe navigators conceived to
be Greenland, lies in lat. 80°, and even {till higher, there is neverthelefs verdure and
grafs, and beafts of pafture, as rein-deer and other animals; and that neither herbs nor
verdure exift in Novaya Zemlia, which is farther diftant from the arétic pole by four
degrees, and where are only feen carnivorous animals, as bears and foxes.
“ This country, which the author of the journal here followed believed to be Green-
land, is the moft northern country which has been difcovered to the prefent time.
It is fituated between Greenland, which depends upon Norway, and Novaya Zemlia,
which belongs to Mofcovy, directly by the fide of Finmarch, or the northern part of
Norway. ‘This ifland extends, at leaft according to the knowledge poflefled when this
journal was publifhed, from the feventy-fixth to Bo the cightieth degree, and confe-
quently is more than fixty German leagues in length.
“Tt was the difference of opinion between William Barentfz and John Cornelifz,
which has been mentioned above, that occafioned the difcovery of the weftern coaft of
the ifland. Since that time Henry Hudfon, an Englifhman, has alfo failed there, of
whom Hondius relates in his great planifphere that he met with a coaft quite covered
with ice to the N. W. of the ifle, by the latitude of between eighty-one and eighty-two
degrees.
Since that time the E nglifi have failed there every fummer, to fetch the teeth of
the fea-cow, whale fins, and the blubber of the fame fifh. This fithery was firft under-
taken by the Ruffian company at London; but the Dutch, French, and Bifcayans have
fince alio failed there. From the knowledge we have of that country, which the En-
glith call Greenland, and the Dutch Spilberg, Spitfberg, or Spifberg, we have defigned
a map*, which is here annexed, principally founded on the map of John Daniel, of
London.
** This ifland, as before mentioned, lies between lat. 76°, and lat. 80° N. N. W. from
* This map is now very antiquated and erroneous.
the
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