THE SEA. 



objects they sought were accomplished. One of the vessels was commanded by Jacob 

 Heemskerke Hendrickson, the master of the second being- Cornelison Rijp; Barents was 

 appointed chief pilot. The expedition sailed from Amsterdam on May 10th, 1596, and 

 on June 1st was in a latitude high enough to have no night. On the 4th, in lat. 71, 

 they observed two parahelia, or mock suns, which are thus described in the narrative : " On 

 each side of the sunne there was another sunne and two raine-bowes, that past eleane 

 thorow the three sunnes, and then two raine-bowes more, the one compassing round about 

 the sunnes, and the other crosse thorow the great rundle." On the 5th they fell in with 



MOCK SL.N'S, SEEX OX THE 4TH JUNE, 1596, BY HAREXTS AXD HIS FOLLOWERS. 



(After a Stamp published in 1609 of Amsterdam.) 



the first floating ice, which at a distance they mistook for white swans, and on the 7th 

 they were in lat. 74, sailing through the ice "as if betweene two lands." They found 

 quantities of the eggs of red geese on an island. The narrator makes these birds, when 

 flying away, cry out "Rot, rot, rot" (red), as though describing themselves. They also 

 killed several bears, one of which they pursued in their boats while "foure glasses were 

 run out (i.e., for two hours), for their weapons seemed powerless to do her hurt. One of 

 the men struck her with an axe, which stuck fast in. her back, and with which she swam 

 away. They followed, and at length a well-directed blow split her skull." They appear 

 to have been much hampered in proceeding further north from the constantly accumulating 

 ice. By their latitude at this time they were near Amsterdam Island, on which is that 

 cape or foreland since so well known to whalers as Hakluyt's Headland. On July 1st the 



