SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 143 



seasons, or perhaps once in every three or four summers, when the persecuted 

 animals get a little time to breed and replenish their numbers. 



About midway between Hammerfest and Spitzbergen lies Bear Island, orig- 

 mally discovered by Barentz on June 9, 1596. Seven years later, Stephen Ben- 



