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96 THIRD VOYACE OF THE DUTCH
reached to the bottom, becaufe all the others paffing along, ftruck againft this bank
without moving it. ‘They were therefore afraid of being enclofed by the ice, and en-
deavoured to leate that part of the fea; although in pafling they found the water
already frozen, the veflel occafioning the ice to crack fora confiderable diftance around
it. ‘Vhey finally arrived at another bank, where they prefently caft a ftream anchor
and remained moored there till night.
After fupper, during the firft watch, the ice began to break with fo dreadful a noife
as not tobedefcribed. The head of the veflel lay in the current which broke up the
ice, fo that they were obliged to let out more cable in order to be clear of it. More
than four hundred large banks of ice were counted, lying ten fathoms under the water,
and apparently of the height of two fathoms above.
They afterwards made the veflel faft to another bank, fix long fathoms under water,
and they moored it by the ftern. When they were fettled there, they perceived at a
little diftance another bank, the top of which ended in a point like the point of a
fteeple, and if reached to the bottom of the fea. They advanced towards it, and found
it to be twenty fathoms under water and nearly twelve above.
On the eleventh of Auguft they failed again towards another bank, being eighteen
fathoms deep, and ten fathoms above the water.
On the twelfth they advanced towards the coaft, that the veflel might not be carried
away by the ice, and that at all events it might be in greater fecurity ; for the larger
banks of ice could not approach it, being only in four or five fathoms of water. In
that place was alfo a great fall of water which defcended from the mountains. The
vetlel was again moored to a bank of ice, and this place they named the Little Cape of
the Ice.
On the thirteenth of the fame month of Auguft, in the morning they faw a bear
coming from the eaftern point towards the veffel. A failor broke one of his legs by a
mufket ball. Notwithftanding which he went back and climbed up a monntain.
Several of the crew left the fhip, and having purfued him, killed and flayed him.
On the fifteenth Barentfz fteered along the coaft of Orange Ifle, where his veffel
was entangled in the ice, near a great bank, in danger of fhipwreck. But he extri-
cated himfelf by approaching the land, though with extreme difficulty; and when he
had moored himfelf, the wind veered to the S. E.: which occafioned him to change his
anchorage. ‘
While the crew were all engaged in performing this change, the great noife they
made awoke a bear who was fleeping quite clofe. He immediately ran towards the
veflel, and obliged all the labourers to quit their work in order to defend themfelves.
The bear received a mufket ball in his body, and fled thus wounded to the other fide
of the ifland, where he placed himfelf ona bank of ice. They followed him, and feeing
the fhallop failing towards him, he threw himfelf again into the water and endeavoured
to get back to theifland. They intercepted his paflage, and wounded him on the head
with a hatchet. ‘They endeavoured to follow up the blow, but every time the hatchet
was raifed, he plunged into the water and avoided the blows with fuch dexterity that it —
was with great difficulty-he was killed.
On the fixteenth ten men in the yacht failed towards Novaya Zemlia. They drew
the {chuyt on the higheft part of the ice, which refembled a little mountain, and obferved
the altitude in order to know in which direction the main land lay. ‘Thy found it to lie
S. S.E., and afterwards {till more tothe S. This led them to think though very unfea-
fonably, that the continent extended towards the fouth. At the fame time they ob-
ferved the water to the S, E. tobe free, and imagined the fuccefs of their voyage was
infured ;
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