RELICS OP BARENTZ. 55 



evenings of her cruel caliph. One day, in the year 1870, 

 Captain Carlsen bore shoreward in his ship to this icy 

 coast of Spitsbergen. He landed at the spot where Barentz 

 had landed before him, and to his perplexed eyes appeared 

 the vision of the old encampment. 



The huts were still there, just as Barentz had left them 

 nearly three hundred years before. In the rude hearth lay 

 the relics of the long extinguished fire. Upon the shelf were 

 books from the old Dutchman's library a work on navi- 

 gation, the latest edition published before he had sailed, and 

 a history of China translated into Dutch. Jugs and dishes, 

 wherein had been prepared the drink and food of the ad- 

 venturers, were scattered here and there, and even a pair 

 of shoes were found which had belonged to a little cabin 

 boy, who, as says the records, had died upon the voyage. 

 There were also quaint engravings, and a curious mathe- 

 matical instrument intended to assist in obtaining longi- 

 tude. All these articles were carefully collected, and were 

 carried to Europe on Carlsen's return. Truly, there is a 

 strong touch of pathos in this revelation of one of the 

 secrete of the long past. 



