54 NOVAYA ZEMLYA 



they could hear the ice cracking in the sea two miles 

 away, and thought that icebergs were breaking on 

 each other ; and as they had not so great a fire as 

 usual owing to the smoke " it froze so sore within the 

 house that the walls and the roof thereof were frozen 

 two fingers thick with ice, even in the bunks in which 

 we lay. All those three days while we could not go 

 out by reason of the foul weather we set up the sand- 

 glass of twelve hours, and when it was run out we set 

 it up again, still watching it lest we should miss our 

 time. For the cold was so great that our clock was 

 frozen and would not go, although we hung more 

 weight on it than before." 



The snow fell until it was so deep round the house 

 that on Christmas Day they heard foxes running over 

 the roof ; and the last day of the year was so cold that 

 " the fire almost cast no heat, for as we put our feet 

 to the fire we burnt our hose before we could feel the 

 heat, so that we had work enough to do to patch our 

 hose." On the 4th of January, "to know where the 

 wind blew we thrust a half pike out of the chimney 

 with a little cloth or feather upon it ; but we had to 

 look at it immediately the wind caught it, for as soon 

 as we thrust it out it was frozen as hard as a piece of 

 wood and could not go about or stir with the wind, so 

 that we said to one another how fearfully cold it must 

 be out of doors." 



Next day, being Twelfth Eve, on which foreigners, 

 according to the old practice, hold the festivities now 

 customary in England on the following day, the men 

 asked Van Heemskerck that they might enjoy them- 

 selves, " and so that night we made merry and drank 



