Winterings in the Arctic Regions during the last fifty years. 341 



been effected during' the last fifty years. The precautions which 

 were found useful in these, the number of deaths and accidents, 

 the occupations and scientific operations will be particularly in- 

 dicated, in order to show how unfounded is the opinion still fre- 

 quently entertained by the general public that it is impossible 

 for Europeans to endure the winter in those climates, and at the 

 same time to lay down more accurately the scientific operations 

 which may be carried out during the winter. 



The first wintering of an exploring expedition of which we 

 have any knowledge is the unfortunate one of Sir Hugh Wil- 

 loughby in the year 1553, who, being cast away by a storm, 

 was frozen in upon the coast of Lapland, and perished by hunger 

 and cold with his whole crew. 



This melancholy occurrence did not, however, deter other bold 

 seamen from repeatedly making the attempt to discover a com- 

 mercial route north of Europe and Asia to the fabulous kingdom 

 of Cathay ; and by these expeditions Spitzbergen, Nowaja Semla, 

 &c. first became known to western Europeans. 



One of these expeditions sailed from Holland in the year 

 1596; its conduct was entrusted to Jakob Heemskerk and his 

 truly wonderful pilot, William Barents. Their ship was beset by 

 the ice on the north-east coast of Nowaja Semla, and they them- 

 selves compelled to pass the winter on that inhospitable shore. 

 Of the crew, which consisted of seventeen persons, five died — 

 two during the residence on Nowaja Semla, three during the 

 return voyage, among whom was Barents ; all of them suffered 

 more or less from scurvy. Nevertheless this wintering must be 

 regarded as a very successful one for that time ; and even to the 

 present day our entire knowledge of the north and north-east 

 coasts of Nowaja Semla is founded upon this voyage, as no one, 

 since Barents, has succeeded in reaching the " Eishafen V where 

 he wintered. 



Many attempts have subsequently been made to pass the win- 

 ter in the arctic and otherwise uninhabited regions, upon Spitz- 

 bergen, Jan Mayen, and in the Hudson's Bay Territories, but 

 of these unfortunately by far the greater part were failures. 

 The causes of this in most cases were scurvy and the necessity, 

 owing to the want of sufficient clothing, of keeping too carefully 

 shut up in the huts. We must, however, admire the courage and 

 steadfastness of these people, who exposed themselves in such com- 

 plete dependence upon good luck to the inclement climate, and at 

 the same time, with the greatest perseverance, so long as the hand 

 weakened by illness could barely guide the pen, continued to 

 write in their journals, in which they described the course of the 

 weather and the conditions of temperature. 



