80 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



Barents, or, at all events, to have visited the place where 

 he wintered, until 1871. No one but he had rounded the 

 north-east point of bleak Novaia Zemlaia. In 1869, how- 

 ever, and on the 16th of May, Captain Carl sen, a Nor- 

 wegian of much experience in the North Sea trade, sailed 

 from Hammerfest in a sloop of sixty tons, called the Solid. 

 On the 7th of September he reached Ice Haven, and on 

 the 9th discovered a rude wooden house standing at the 

 head of the bay. Its dimensions were 32 feet by 20, and 

 it was constructed of planks measuring from 14 to 16 

 inches in breadth, and 1J inches thick. These, it was 

 evident, had belonged to a ship, and amongst them were 

 several oak beams. Heaps of bones of seal, bear, reindeer, 

 and walrus, as well as several large puncheons, were col- 

 lected round the hut. It was the winter prison of Barents 

 and his companions, and had never been entered by human 

 foot since they had abandoned it. The cooking-pans stood 

 over the fireplace, the old clock hung against the wall ; 

 there were the books, and implements, and tools, and 

 weapons, which had been of so much service two hundred 

 and seventy-eight years before. It was an Arctic repro- 

 duction of the legend of the hundred years' sleep of the 

 fairy princess. 



1 Captain Carlsen gives the following list of articles 

 found in the lone hut on the shore of Novaia Zemlaia : 

 Iron frame over the fireplace, with shifting bar; two ship 

 cooking-pans of copper, found standing on the iron frame, 

 with the remains of a copper scoop; copper bands, pro- 

 bably at one time fastened round pails ; bar of iron ; iron 

 crowbar ; one long and two small gun-barrels ; two bores 

 or augers, each three feet in length ; chisel, padlock, caulk- 

 ing iron, three gouges, and six files ; plate of zinc ; earthen- 

 ware jar ; tankard, with zinc lid ; lower half of another 

 tankard ; six fragments of pepper pots ; tin meat-strainer ; 

 pair of boots ; sword ; fragments of old engravings, with 

 Latin couplets underneath them ; three Dutch books ; a 

 small piece of metal ; nineteen cartridge cases, some still 

 full of powder; iron chest, with lid, and intricate lock- 



