258 BARENTZ' THIRD VOYAGE. 



a.d. about them." The cold was most unrelenting 

 in its severity, and the falls of snow so heavy 

 and frequent that, during the greater part of 

 April, the party were shut up in their house. 

 On the 17th, however, they moved out to visit 

 the vessel, and found the ice again in motion ; 

 and, in an open space near the shore, observed a 

 diver, the first bird they had seen. On the 30th 

 they observed the sun at midnight just above 

 the northern horizon ; a circumstance which, if 

 further evidence of their reckoning being correct 

 were required, would fully establish the fact. 



Although they had thus occasionally mild clays 

 on which they could venture abroad, yet on the 

 whole the weather was so intensely cold to their 

 debilitated frames, that the 29th of May had ar- 

 rived before they could make any preparation 

 to depart, and then they found themselves too 

 weak to recover their boat from the snow, in 

 order to repair her for their voyage, — which it 

 was necessary to do, as their ship was bilged 

 and rendered unserviceable, so that they were 

 " wholly out of heart." It is so painful to fol- 

 low these miserable creatures through all their 

 sufferings, that I have only touched upon them 

 occasionally, and contented myself with record- 

 ing the most material occurrences in the inte- 

 resting narrative before me. 



