146 Account of a Voyage to Spitjhergen. 



loft, created a prudent fear, and induced the mafter to put 

 about fliip for North Foreland. The wind fhiftcd at the 

 fame time to the northward, and in a couple of days we 

 came to anchor on North Bank, called Smeerenburg's Har- 

 bour. Wo faw now plenty of lin-fifii or finners, white 

 whales, and unicorns ; which is a fign that the feafon is over 

 for killing the black whale, which then retires to the north- 

 ward. As all thefe animals are well known and defcribed, 

 I forbear faying any thing refpeiting them. 



One of our men having been at the habitation of the Ruf- 

 fians in North Bank the year before, and affuring us that he 

 Could find the way to their hut, Captain Souter, a man of an 

 inquifitive mind, propofed to me to pay them a vifit. We 

 took ten or twelve men with us, a compafs, a few bottles of 

 wine, bread, chcefe, &c., and fome good trade-knives, with 

 a fmall keg of gunpowder, to make a prcfcnt of to the Ruf- 

 fians. 



We landed at the bottom of the harbour to the eaftward, 

 where we found a large valley, fevcral miles in breadth, fur- 

 rounded with immcnfe high mountains, moftly covered with 

 fnow ; but as the fun had melted a part, the brown and 

 black rock appeared, and rivulets of clear water ran down, 

 forming little waterfalls. 



The ground was turf and clay, and not bad to walk on: 

 we had feveral fmall rivulets- to crofs, of two or three fett 

 wide, but very (liallow; near them we found fcurvy-graf*, 

 water-creffes, endive, wild celevy, and a few fmall flowers, 

 and faw a number of land birds flying up at our approach. 

 We crolVed a piece of ground where the Dutch had formerly 

 iBuried their dead : three or four of the coffins were open, 

 with human (keletons lying in them. Some infcriptions 

 on boards, of which above twenty were ere£lcd over the 

 graves, had the years 1630, 1640, &cc. affixed to them. We 

 alfo faw the ruins of fome brickwork, which had been a fur- 

 Jiace, as the Dutch ufed to boil their oil here in the laft cen- 

 tury, and for that reafon called it Smeerenburg's Haven, or 

 9 the 



