xc 
Bixops, 
Fisk. 
SP PST HINZE IR iG Ae 
purpofe. In 1743, four unhappy mariners of that naticn were accidentally left on 
fthore on North EajHand, called by the Ruffians Maly Broun. Here three (the fourth 
died in the laft year) lived till 4uguff 15th 1749; when they were providentially 
relieved by the arrival of a fhip, after pafiing fix years, realizing in ingenious 
contrivances the celebrated Englifh fable of Robinfon Crufoe *. 
In the year 1633 feven Dutch failors were left voluntarily on the weftern part 
of Spitzbergen, to pafs the winter, and form their remarks. They were fur- 
nifhed with medicines, and every requifite to preferve life ; but every one perifhed 
by the effe&ts of the fcurvy. In the next year, feven other unhappy men devoted 
themfelves, and died in the fame manner. Of the firft fet, it- appeared by his 
journal, that the laft was alive the 3oth of April 16343; of the fecond, the life of” 
the laft furvivor did not continue far beyond the 28th of February 1635+. Yet 
eight Exglifhmen, left in 1630 in the fame country, by accident, and unprovided 
with every thing, framed themfelves a hut from fome old materials, and were 
found by the returning fhips, on AZay 28th 1631, in good health t. Thus Ruffian 
hardinefs and Briti/b {pirit braved a climate, which the phlegmatic conftitution 
of a Dutchman could not refift. 
To meet with the Snow Bunting, N° 222, a bird whofe bill, in common with - 
the reft of that genus, is calculated for granivorous life, is a.kind of miracle. 
The country has a very fcanty provifion of feeds ; the earth yields no worms, the 
air no infects ; yet thefe birds are feen in flocks innumerable, and that chiefly 
on the ice around SpitzSergen : as it breeds early, poflibly the old and young may 
have quitted the land, and collected on the ice at the time of the arrival of the. 
fhips. 
Of cloven-footed water-fow], the Purre, N° 390, alone is feen here. 
Of web-footed, the Puffin Auk, N° 427; the Razor Bill, N° 425; the Little 
Auk, Ne 429; the Foolifh Guillemot, N° 436 ; the Black Guillemot, N° 437 5 
the Northern Diver, N° 439 ; the Ivory Gull, N° 457; the Herring Gull, Ne 452; 
the Arétic Gull, N° 459; the Kittiwake, Ne 456, and the Greater Tern, 
Ne 448: thefe, with the Eider Duck, N° 480, complete the fhort lift of the 
feathered tribe of Spitzbergen. All thefe breed in the froft-rent cracks of the 
mountains, and appear even in thefe regions before the 16th of March §. 
The Whale is lord paramount of thefe feas ; and, like a monftrous tyrant, 
feems to have terrified almoft every other fpecies of fifh away.. A few Coal Fifth, 
Br. Zool. iii. N° 78, and two of the unctuous Suckers, N° 58, were the whole 
which were taken by Lard Mulgrave, after feveral trials by hook and by net. 
® §ce the curious Narratives + Churchill's Coll, it. 415,427. 1 The fame, iv. 808. 
§ The fame, p. 8x8. 
I can 
