146 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



were again obliged to return to J^^'orway in the same boat. The ship had an- 

 chored in the open bay of North Haven, and having taken in its cargo, consist- 

 ing of 180 walruses, which had all been killed in a few days, was about to leave, 

 when a storm arose, which cast her ashore and broke her to pieces. The Rus- 

 sians had built some huts in the neighborhood, and the provisions might probably 

 have been saved, but rather than winter in the island the crew resolved to ven- 

 ture home again in the boat. This was so small that one-half of them were 

 obliged to lie down on the bottom while the others rowed ; the autumn was al- 

 ready far advanced, and they encountered so savage a storm that an English 

 ship they fell in with at the North Cape vainly endeavored to take them on 

 board. After a ten days' voyage, however, they safely arrived at Magero, thus 

 proving the truth of the old saying that " Fortune favors the bold." The dis- 

 tance from Bear Island to North Cape is about sixty nautical miles. 



In a straight line between Spitzbergen and Iceland lies Jan Meyen, which, 

 exposed to the cold Greenland current, almost perpetually veiled with mists, and 

 surrounded by drift ice, would scarcely ever be disturbed in its dreary solitude 

 but for the numerous walrus and seal herds that frequent its shores. The ice- 

 bears and the wild sea-birds are its only inhabitants ; once some Dutchmen at- 

 tempted to winter there, but the scurvy swept them all away. Its most remark- 

 able features are the volcano Esk and the huge mountain Beerenberg, towering 

 to the height of 6870 feet, with seven enormous glaciers sweeping down its 

 sides into the sea. 



