159^. WILLIAM BARENTZ. 147 



On the 5th they fell in with the first ice, which, 

 being in fleecy detached pieces, some of the crew 

 mistook for white swans. On the 7th they were 

 in lat. 74°, sailing through the ice " as if betweene 

 two lands." On the .9th they came to Bea?^ (after- 

 wards Cherry) island; and here they killed a bear, 

 whose skin measured twelve feet in Icnirth. On 

 the 19th they found, by observation, that they had 

 reached the lat. 80° if, at which time they had 

 much land to the eastward. On this coast, after a 

 hard fight, they killed another bear, whose skin 

 was thirteen feet long. On a small island they 

 found multitudes of eggs of certain red geese; the 

 birds, when driven away, cried rot^ rot, rot!^ 

 " Those geese were of a perfit red colour, such as 

 come into Holland about Weiringen, and everie 

 yeere are there taken in abundance, but till this 

 time it was never knowne \\ here they hatcht their 

 egges ; so that some men have taken upon them to 

 write that they sit upon trees in Scotland, that 

 hang over the water, and such egges as fall from 

 them downe into the water become young geese, 

 and swim there out of the water ; but those that 

 fall upon the land burst in sunder, and are lost." 

 This fable of the barnacles is- thus, in the opinion 

 of De Veer, for the first time refuted; and, he 

 continues, " it is not to be wondered at, that no 

 man could tell where they breed their egges, for 



♦ That is, red, red, red. 

 L 2 



