180 WHALE-IISHERY. 



pers and other apparatus that were worth the re- 

 moval were taken away, and the buildings of all the 

 different nations, both at Spitzbergen and at Jan 

 Mayen Island, were either wantonly razed to 

 the ground, or suffered to fall into a state of de- 

 cay *. 



JNIartin, who sailed to Spitzbergen in 1671, ob- 

 served several buildings connected with the " Har- 

 lem Cookery" still remaining. They consisted of 

 two dwelling-houses and two warehouses. He also 

 noticed a kettle and coolers, a smith's anvil, tongs, 

 and other tools, frozen among the ice. 



When the whales first approached the borders of 

 the ice, the fishers held it in such dread, that when- 

 ever an entangled fish ran towards it, they immedi- 

 ately cut the line f . Experience through time, in- 

 ured them to it ; occasionally they ventured among 

 the loose ice, and the capture of small whales at 

 fields was at length attempted, and succeeded. 

 Some adventurous persons sailed to the east side of 

 Spitzbergen, where the current has a tendency, it is 

 believed, to turn the ice against the shore; yet 

 here finding the sea on some occasions open, they 

 attempted to prosecute the fishery, and it seems 

 with some success, a great whale-fishery having 

 been made near Stans Foreland in the year 1700. 



The progress of the retreat of the whales from 

 the bays, first to the sea-coast, from thence to the 



* Beschryving, &c. vol. i. p. So. t Idem, p. 32. 



