194 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



a number of hunting adventures with them, all of which came 

 off successfully. Several bears made themselves at home in 

 the vessel abandoned by the crew, casting everything about, 

 and broke up the hatch of the kitchen, covered as it was with 

 deep snow. An attempt to eat bear's liver resulted in those 

 that ate of it becoming very ill, and after recovery renewing 

 their skin over the whole body. Once during severe cold, 

 when pitcoal was used to warm the building, all the men in 

 it were like to have died of the fumes. On one or two occa- 

 sions, for instance on the |th February, so much snow had 

 collected outside the door, that it was necessary to go out by the 

 chimney. For the preservation of their health the Dutch often 

 took a vapour bath in a barrel fitted up for the purpose. 



On the - ^^ !^''^n the first small birds were seen, and on the -th 



27ili April ' 15 



May Barents declared that if the vessel were not got off before 

 the end of the month, they should return in boats, which were 

 therefore immediately got ready. This was, however, attended 

 with great difficulty, because most of the crew had during the 

 course of the winter become exceedingly weak, evidently from 

 scurvy. After the equipment of the boats had been completed 

 and they had been properly laden with provisions, the Dutch at 

 last started on the ~ June. 



13th 



A man had died on the ^fthi^.- At the beginning of the boat 

 voyage Barents himself was very ill, and six days after, on the 

 |?th June, he died, while resting with his companions on a 

 large floe, being compelled to do so by the drift-ice. On the 

 same day one of the crew died, and on the '|th July another. 



On the ^iT^ui^ the returning Arctic explorers at St. Lawrens' 

 Bay fell in with two vessels manned by Russian hunters, 

 whose acquaintance the Dutchmen had made the year before, 

 and who now received them with great friendliness and pity for 

 their sufferings. They continued their voyage in their small 

 open boats, and all arrived in good health and spirits at Kola, 

 where they were received with festivities by the inhabitants. 

 It gave them still greater joy to meet here Jan Cornelisz. Rijp, 

 from whom they had parted at Bear Island the preceding year, 

 and of whose voyage we know only that he intended to sail up 

 along the east coast of Spitzbergen, and that, when this was 

 found to be impossible, he returned home the same autumn. 



After the two boats, in which Barents' companions had 

 travelled with so many dangers and difficulties from their winter 

 haven to Russian Lapland, had been left in the merchant's yard^ 



^ Built along with a weigh-house intended for the Norwegians in 1582 

 by the first vojvode in Kola {Hamel, p. 66). In Pontanus (JRerum ct 

 urbis Amstelodamensium Historia, Amsterodami, 1611, p. 142), there is 

 a drawing of the inner yard of this house, and of the reception of 

 shipwrecked men there. 



