WINTER IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 479 
in great fear that if the extremity of the cold grew to be more 
and more, we should all die there of cold; for that what fire 
soever we made would not warm us.” The ice was now two inches 
thick upon the walls and even on the sides of their sleeping-cots, 
and the very clothes they wore were whitened with frost, so that 
as they sat together in their hut they “were all as white as the 
countrymen used to be when they came in at the gates of the 
towns in Holland with their sleads, and have gone all night.” 
Yet in the midst of all their sufferings these hardy men 
maintained brave and cheerful hearts, and so great was their 
elasticity of spirit that, remembering the 5th of January was 
“ Twelfth Even,” they determined to celebrate it as best they 
might. ‘And then,” says the old chronicler, “we prayed our 
maister that we might be merry that night, and said that we 
were content to spend some of the wine that night which we 
had spared, and which was our share (one glass) every second 
day ; and so that night we made merry and drew forking. And 
therewith we had two pounds of meale, whereof we made pan- 
cakes with oyle, and every man had a white biscuit, which we 
sopt in the wine. And so, supposing that we were in our own 
country, and amongst our friends, it comforted as well as if we 
had made a great banket in our owne house.” Blessed Content ! 
arising from a simple heart and a life of honest and healthful toil, 
never didst thou celebrate a greater triumph, or more forcibly 
show thy power, than in that dreary hut on Nova Zembla! 
Some weeks afterwards the sun appeared once more above 
the horizon; and the glorious sight, though it soon vanished 
again into darkness, was a joyful one indeed, full of delightful 
images of a return to friends and home. Now, also, the furious 
gales and snow-storms ceased; and, though the severity of the 
cold continued unabated, they were able to brave the outer air 
and recruit their strength by exercise. 
When summer came, it was found impossible to disengage the 
ice-bound vessel, and the only hopes of escaping from their 
dreary prison now rested on two small boats, in which they 
ventured on the capricious ocean. On the fourth day of their 
voyage, their fragile barks became surrounded by immense 
quantities of floating ice, which so crushed and injured them, 
that the crews, giving up all hope, took a solemn leave of each 
other. But in this desperate crisis they owed their lives to the 
