WINTER IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 479 



in great fear that if the extremity of the cold grew to be more 

 and more, we should all die there of cold ; for that what fire 

 soever we made would not warm us." The ice was now two inches 

 thick upon the walls and even on the sides of their sleeping-cots r 

 and the very clothes they wore were whitened with frost, so that 

 as they sat together in their hut they " were all as white as the 

 countrymen used to be when they came in at the gates of the- 

 towns in Holland with their sleads, and have gone all night." 



Yet in the midst of all their sufferings these hardy men 

 maintained brave and cheerful hearts, and so great was their 

 elasticity of spirit that, remembering the 5th of January was 

 " Twelfth Even," they determined to celebrate it as best they 

 might. " And then," says the old chronicler, " we prayed our 

 maister that we might be merry that night, and said that we 

 were content to spend some of the wine that night which we 

 had spared, and which was our share (one glass) every second' 

 day ; and so that night we made merry and drew forking. And 

 therewith we had two pounds of meale, whereof we made pan- 

 cakes with oyle, and every man had a white biscuit, which we 

 sopt in the wine. And so, supposing that we were in our own 

 country, and amongst our friends, it comforted as well as if we 

 had made a great banket in our owne house." Blessed Content ! 

 arising from a simple heart and a life of honest and healthful toil,- 

 never didst thou celebrate a greater triumph, or more forcibly 

 show thy power, than in that dreary hut on Nova Zembla ! 



Some weeks afterwards the sun appeared once more above 

 the horizon ; and the glorious sight, though it soon vanished 

 again into darkness, was a joyful one indeed, full of delightful' 

 images of a return to friends and home. Now, also, the furious 

 gales and snow-storms ceased ; and, though the severity of the 

 cold continued unabated, they were able to brave the outer air 

 and recruit their strength by exercise. 



When summer came, it was found impossible to disengage the 

 ice-bound vessel, and the only hopes of escaping from their 

 dreary prison now rested on two small boats, in which they 

 ventured on the capricious ocean. On the fourth day of their 

 voyage, their fragile barks became surrounded by immense 

 quantities of floating ice, which so crushed and injured them, 

 that the crews, giving up all hope, took a solemn leave of each 

 other. But in this desperate crisis they owed their lives to the- 



