J^O Account of a Voyage to Spitjhergen. 



every winter. When a fnow ftorm happens, we cannot go 

 out of the houfe ; but when it is feiene, and no wind, it is 

 not too cold to go out and walk many miles. With the 

 moonlight, the unconimon brilliancy of the ftars in thefe 

 high latitudes, and the refleftion of the northern lights, or 

 aurora boreal'ts, we have fo much light that we can fee to 

 read a book or to write. 



" In winter time the black whales come into the harboul^ 

 and play clofe within fhore, where we kill now and then one 

 vith harpoons fired out of a fwivel. We kill white bears, 

 foxes, reiu-deer, and birds, as many as we can before the 

 night-feafon, which commences in September, when all the 

 land animals leave us and walk over the ice into Nova Zem- 

 bla and Siberia : the land birds leave us in the fame manner. 

 Unicorns we alfo kill in the harbour, for the fake of their ivory 

 trunks, which are afterwards fent to Germany and France." 



The furgcon and I had a race on fnow (hoes, which are a. 

 kind of (kates, of about two feet in length, for fkating over 

 the fnow and ice. As I was in former years a 'good fkater, 

 I could ufe them as well as he did. We ran fix or feven 

 miles with them in an hour without fatiguing ourfdves; 

 they have no irons. 



Before we left our Ruffian hofi, he informed us, that a few 

 weeks before they had, coming home from a fhooting party, 

 found an Englifli captain and nine or ten men overhaulino- 

 their property in the hut. The captain, finding that his 

 cheft had been broke open, and that his rubles were dimi- 

 niftied confiderably, reproached theEnglifh commander with 

 the robbery, and a battle enfiied. " The Eng]i(h fired upon 

 us,*' faid the furgeon, who afted all along as interpreter, 

 ** and killed one of our men on the fpot. We returned the fire 

 and wounded fome of his men, and caufed them to retreat 

 precipitately. When the Englifh were gone, our captain 

 counted his rubles, and found that there were 600 miffing." 

 He intended to fend a ftatement of the affair to the Ruffian 

 gQVer-nment, 



After 



