/4 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



form seemed now to be inevitable. Fortunately, in the 

 morning a sail was discovered : their signals were under- 

 stood ; and, being taken upon board, twenty survivors, 

 after forty-eight hours of this extreme distress, were 

 ultimately restored to safety. 



In 1760, the Blecker (Bleacher), Captain Pitt, was 

 driven against the ice with such violence, that in an 

 instant all her rigging was dashed to pieces. Soon after, 

 twenty-nine of the crew quitted the vessel, and, leaping 

 by the help of poles and perches from one fragment of 

 ice to another, contrived to reach the main field. The 

 captain, with seven men, remained on board, and en- 

 deavoured to open a passage ; but soon after, the ship 

 again struck, when they were obliged to go into a boat, 

 and commit themselves to chance, the snow falling so 

 thick that they could scarcely see each other. As the 

 weather cleared, they discovered their companions on 

 the ice, who threw a whale-line, and dragged them to the 

 same spot. There, the party, having waited twelve hours 

 in hopes of relief, at length trusted themselves to the 

 boats, and in twelve hours more were taken up by a 

 Dutch vessel. 



Captain Bille, in 1675, lost a ship richly laden, which 

 went down suddenly ; after which, the crew wandered 

 in boats over the sea for fourteen days before they were 

 taken up : thirteen other vessels perished that year in 

 the Spitzbergen seas. Three seasons after, Captain Bille 

 lost a second ship by the violent concussion of the ice, 

 the crew having just time to save themselves on a 

 frozen field. At the moment of their disaster they were 

 moored to a large floe, along with another brig, called 

 the Red Fox ; which last shortly after met a similar fate, 

 being struck with such violence that the whole, hull and 

 masts together, disappeared almost in an instant, the 



