BARENTZ. 35 



in the fire, which we shared every second day about 

 Lalfe a pint for a man, wherewith we were forced to 

 sustayne ourselves ; and at other times we dranke water, 

 which agreed not well with the cold, and we needed not 

 to coole it with snow or ice ; but we were forced to 

 melt it out of the snow." 



Linen froze in an instant taken out of warm water. 

 The closeness of the hut nearly suffocated them from 

 the smoke, and if the fire became low the walls were 

 soon covered with thick ice, even the beds were lined 

 with it. Except when employed in cooking, they lay 

 constantly in their beds. Oftentimes they heard tre- 

 mendous noises like thunder break the fearful stillness 

 of the unbounded frozen waste around them ; it seemed 

 like the bursting asunder of mountains, and the dashing 

 them into atoms. This sound was probably caused by 

 the fracture of the ice at sea. They knew not day 

 from night, the moon shining brightly. On the 7th of 

 December they went on board their ship for some coals, 

 and made up a good fire in the evening, which gave 

 them much comfort. They had a narrow escape, how- 

 ever, from the vapor ; for, closing every aperture of 

 the hut to keep in the heat as much as possible, a sea- 

 man, who was indisposed, first complained of not being 

 able to bear it, and then they were all attacked with 

 vertigo, and could scarcely stand, until the door was 

 opened, when the first who reached it fell down faint on 

 the snow. Gerard de Veer recovered the fallen man by 

 sprinkling his face with vinegar, and the fresh air rush- 

 ing in restored them again. A glass of wine was then 

 served out to each man to recover him completely. 



On the 19th of December they comforted them- 

 selves that half the time of the sun's absence was over. 

 The seamen's shoes were now frozen so hard that they 

 could not be worn, and they made themselves slippers of 



