Living in High Latitudes. 89 



wretch continued the journal to the last day of April, when 

 they were praying for a speedy release from their miseries. 

 They were all found dead. 



'The journal of those who were left at Spitzbergen re- 

 cites, that they sought in vain for green herbs, bears and 

 foxes in that desolate region, and killed no other game 

 than one fox the whole time. The scurvy appeared 

 among them as early as November 24, and the first man 

 died January 14th. The journal ends February 26th ; 

 and these too were all found dead. . . . 



' On the same side of Spitzbergen, between latitude yy"^ 

 and 78°, a boat's crew, belonging to a Greenland ship, con- 

 sisting of eight Englishmen, who had been sent ashore to 

 kill deer, were left behind, in consequence of some mis- 

 take, and reduced to the deplorable necessity of wintering 

 in that dreadful country, totally unprovided with every 

 necessary. . . . 



* The melancholy of their situation was aggravated by 

 the absence of the sun from the horizon from October 

 14 to February 3, of which period twenty days were 

 passed in total darkness, except the light of lamps, 

 which they contrived to keep continually burning. With 

 all this, it does not appear that any of them were affected 

 with the scurvy, or any other disorder ; and the degree of 

 weakness, which seems implied by the mention of their 

 recovering strength in the spring, may be sufficiently 

 accounted for merely from their short allowance of nutri- 

 tious food. At the return of the ship on May 25 they all 

 appear to have been in health ; and all of them returned 

 in safety to their native country. . . . 



* In the year 1743, a Russian ship of East Spitzbergen, 

 in latitude between 77° and y^°f was so enclosed with ice, 



