22 "WYBE jan's water." 



Srcl. Thinking the sloop had not yet reached 

 Spitzbergen, I determined to sail iip the great 

 gulf or sound called " Stour Fiord" or "Wybe 

 Jan's Water," to a place called *' Thymen's 

 Straits," about forty miles distant, in hopes of 

 getting a few reindeer for provisions, as we 

 were now subsisting on a bull, which, in the 

 absence of anything better, I had purchased in 

 Hammerfest. 



Hitherto the fiord had appeared quite clear 

 of ice, except a little about the shore, but 

 on sailing about twenty miles north, we 

 sighted a long, low, white line of ice, extending 

 like a wall apparently right across the fiord ; 

 we thought at first that this was a sheet of 

 fixed or " fast " ice, but on approaching it we 

 discovered that it was drift ice, mostly in small 

 pieces, and very open. We saw two small 

 vessels, which we made out to be a brig and a 

 sloop, or "jagt," at some distance amongst the 

 ice. Thinking the sloop might either be our 

 own, or be able to give ns some intelligence of 

 her, we sent a boat on board her during a calm. 

 They knew nothing of our sloop, and reported 

 an indifferent "fishing" hitherto; no vessel 

 that they knew of had killed more than thirty 

 walruses ; they themselves had twenty, with 



