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TO THE NORTH OF EUROPE, OS
was dreary, yet they heard foxes around the hut, which they would have been well
pleafed to have caught, to ufe in the prefling want. ‘The fire no longer appeared to
caft its accuftomed heat, or at leaft it could not pafs to near objects ; for their ftockings
were burned before their feet received any warmth, and the burning of the flockings
would not have been perceived, if the fmell had not been affected.
In this manner paffed the clofe of the year, and in the midft of thefe fufferings the
remainder of the crew of the veflel entered on the year 1597. ‘The commencement
was not lefs fevere than the preceding year had been: they began it by again diminifh-
ing the portions of wine diftributed every other day ; and as fome of them feared it
would be a confiderable length of time before they left the place, though they always
flattered themfelves with this hope, they fpared that very neceflary aliment, in order to
make it laft the longer, and to retain fome in cafe of a more preffing occafion.
On the fourth of January they put on their chimney a lance with a fmall piece of
cloth, in order to know the quarter of the wind ; but to learn it, they did well to ob–
ferve it in placing the linen, for it was frozen ina moment after, and becamie as {tiff as
a ftick, without being able to play or turn.
On the fifth the air being a little milder, they cleared their door, which had been fhut
for fome days, and opened it: they made ufe of this opportunity for regulating the moft
neceflary matters; among others they cut fome wood and carried it into the hut, that
they might not be in want of it, if poflible. 3
The whole of the day being thus pafled.in laborious occupation, they recolle€ted at
night that it was twelfth-day, and entreated the mafter to permit them to take at leaf
fome hours of recreation, among fo many hardfhips and caufes of grief. They were
unwilling to ufe any thing but the wine they had voluntarily fpared, and perhaps two
pounds of flour, of which they made a kind of fritters cooked with oil; a mefs which
was eaten with as good an appetite as they would have eaten the greateft delicacies, if
they had been at their own dwellings. ‘They even celebrated the feaft in all its cere-
monies, drawing tickets, and the gunner was king of Novaya Zemlia ; a country perhaps
more than two hundred leagues long, fituated between two feas.
On the tenth of January they found the water had rifen nearly a foot in the veffel.
On the twelfth they obferved the altitude of the ftar called the Bull’s Eye ; and it ap-
peared to them that the altitude of this ftar, and fome others befides, which they had
obferved, and that of the fun, accorded very well, and that they were in lat. 76°, but
rather higher than lower. :
On the thirteenth the weather was clear and ferene, and they perceived the light of
day began to increafe ; for on throwing a ball they perceived it roll, which they could
not before. From this time they went out every day, and exercifed themfelves at walk-
ing, running, throwing, in order to revive their limbs: they alfo remarked at the fame
time a rednefs in the fky, which was to them an aurora, the harbinger of the fun, The
air was alfo found lefs cold during the day; fo that when they had a good fire in the
‘hut, there fell from the boards and partitions large pieces of ice which thawed in-the
beds, a circumftance which never happened before, however great they made their fire 5
but at night it always froze equally {trong.
On the eighteenth, as the wood-fuel diminifhed greatly, they again ufed pit-coal, with
the precaution of not clofing the chimney, which prevented the former bad eflects :
neverthelefs they judged it proper to be careful of it as well as the wood, and ftill more
fo, for they expected to reimbark in their little veffel without any covering, where they
would have great occafion for coal. It was alfo neceffary in the fame manner to dim1-
aifh the portions of bifcuit, as well on account of the quantity already confumed, aa
VOL. I. P becaufe
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