BARENTZ' THIRD VOYAGE. 257 



more audacious than ever, even following the A .n. 



1597. 



people to the door of their house, which they 

 attempted to force ; and one was killed on the 

 eve of entering the room where the people 

 slept. On opening this animal there was found 

 in his stomach "part of a buck, with the hair 

 and skinne and all, which not long before she 

 had torne and devoured," a fact which I men- 

 tion only to rectify an error in supposing deer 

 did not frequent Nova Zembla. 



On the 22nd February, as a party were re- 

 turning from the vessel, they had the satisfaction 

 to see the ice break away from the shore, which 

 put them all in " good comfort ;" and on the 

 8th March they were further gratified at finding 

 it drifted entirely away, so that there was not 

 a particle of ice to be seen in the north-eastern 

 quarter, and in the south-east alone was there 

 any visible. This remarkable disruption of the 

 ice would have put them in the highest spirits 

 had the weather relaxed in its severity, but the 

 continuance of the cold satisfied them that it 

 was only a temporary occurrence, as in fact it 

 proved, for, toward the end of March, it closed 

 again with the land, and with such a tremen- 

 dous reaction that it was piled up along the 

 coast as though there had been " whole townes 

 made of ice with towers and bulwarks round 



s 



