xen 
DiseOvERY OF 
SPirTzBERGiNe 
Waite Sa. 
ARCHANGEL. 
spl or °Z 1B ME UR OSG AEN, 
the Vorticella Encrinus, Lin, Syft. N° 1317, engravenm in our Tranfactions, 
vol. xlviii. p. 305, and taken in lat. 79, off this coaft: two of them being drawn’ 
up with the founding-line, in 236 fathom water. 
The priority of difcovery of thefe iflands has been a great matter of controverfy 
between the Englifh and the Dutch. We clame it from the fight which Sir 
Hugh Willoughby is pretended to have had of it in his unfortunate voyage; 
but if what he faw, in lat. 72, was not a fog-bank, we muft fuppofe it to 
have been either Yohn Afayen’s ifle, or part of Eeff Greenland. ‘The abfurd 
zeal of the English compilers makes Stephen Boroughs the fecond difcoverer of this 
country, in 1556; but it is very certain, that he never got higher than lat. 
70. 42, nor ever meant any difcovery but a paflage to the river Ob *, It doubt- 
lefsly was firft difcovered by the Dutch Barentz; who, in his third voyage, in 
1596, for the finding out the north-eaft paflage, met with a land in lat. 79 Z» 
and anchored ina good road, in eighteen fathom water. He afterwards failed as high 
as 80, and found two of the iflands of which Spitzbergen is compofed +. Embar= 
rafled with ice, he took a fouthern courfe, and was foon after wrecked on the 
coaft of Nova Zemlja: but the Englifh and Dutch purfued the hint; and the 
Whale-fithery, which before was chiefly carried on by the Bi/cayeners in the bay of 
St. Laurence, was commenced here with great fuccefs. So active were we, that 
our fhips frequented the place within two years after its difcovery. 
I now return to the North Cape on the coaft of Finmark; and after paffing by 
the feveral places mentioned in pages Ixxix. and Ixxx. enter a ftreight, bounded by 
Mufcovitifh Finmark, confifting of low hills, and the flat province of Adejfen, 
on the eaft. This leads into the Bisele Mari, or White Sea; or, more pro- 
perly, gulph ; for its waters are fhallow, its bottom full of mud, brought by 
the great rivers which difcharge themfelves. into it, which almoft deprive it 
of faltnefs. This was the Cwen fea of Oéther; but had been forgotten fince 
his time. The Dwina, or Double River, is the greateft, which takes 
its name from being formed by the Suchona and the Yug, very remote from its 
mouth. Itis navigable to a great diftance, and brings the commodities of the 
interior parts of the empire to Archangel, a city feated on its banks, about fix miles 
from the fea, It rofe froma caftle built there by Baflowitz II. to protect the in- 
® Hachluyt, i. 274, 280. 
+ Trois Voyages an Nord, &c. par Girard de Ver, p. 14, 15+ 
creafing 
