SETTLEMENT TRIED AT JAN MAYEN. 173 



Dutch Greenland Company determined to send 

 out persons to their establishment at Amsterdam 

 Island, and published their intention through- 

 out their fleet in 1633. Seven seamen accord- 

 ingly volunteered for this service, and were 

 landed upon Amsterdam Island, with an ample 

 supply of provision and every necessary. At 

 the same time, seven other seamen offered to 

 pass a winter upon the Island of St. Maurice, 

 now called Jan Mayen, upon which the Dutch 

 had also a cookery ; and as this is the first 

 instance of any winter being passed in this 

 island, it will not be irrelevant to give a sketch 

 of the climate, and of the success which attended 

 this as well as the other experiment. 



The island is situated in latitude 71° N., and is 

 about thirty miles long by three broad, with a re- 

 markable mountain, called by the Dutch Beeren- 

 burg, or Bear's Mount, rising from the northern 

 part of it to the height of six thousand eight hun- 

 dred and seventy feet.* The island is in the 

 immediate vicinity of the edge of that immense 

 barrier of ice which extends across the northern 

 part of the Atlantic, and it appears from the 

 narrative of these men, that it is accessible to 

 shipping during great part of the winter season. 

 It seems to be subject to a great vicissitude of 



* Scoresby's " Arctic Regions." 



