106 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



to his shoulders, and might, hut for the sudden ex- 

 tension of his amis, have heen buried in the gulf. 



In the first ages vof the Spitzbergen fishery, when 

 the ships frequented the hays and harbours, and 

 sometimes moored close to the shore, many serious 

 disasters were occasioned by the fall of pieces of 

 icebergs. An instance is recorded by Purchas 

 in his " Pilgrimes." One of the Russia Compa- 

 ny's ships, which was on the whale-fishery in the 

 year 1619, was driven on shore in Bell Sound, by 

 ice setting in from the sea. The Captain, with 

 most of his crew and boats, was absent at the time 

 of the accident ; but on the first intelligence, caus- 

 ed his boats to be hauled up on the ice, and proceed- 

 ed on board to endeavour to get the ship off. After 

 they had been using every endeavour for this pur- 

 pose during about an hour, a main piece of an ad- 

 joining ice-cliff came down, and almost overwhelm- 

 ed the vessel and her crew in its ruins. The 

 shock must have been tremendous. The ice which 

 fell, struck the ship so high and so forcibly, that it 

 carried away the fore-mast, " broke the main-mast," 

 sprung the bowsprit, and flung the ship over with 

 such violence, that a piece of ordnance was thrown 

 overboard from under the half-deck ; and the Cap- 

 tain and some of the crew were projected in the 

 same way. The Captain, notwithstanding his im- 

 minent danger, with fragments of ice flying in all 

 directions, and the masts of the ship falling around 



