ch. ix] Barentsz. Linschoten. De Veer 73 
the other by Jan Cornelis Rijp. Barentsz went with 
Heemskerk as chief pilot. 
On the 9th June, 1596, the two ships came to a small 
steep island north of the Finmarken coast which received 
the name of Bear Island 1 . It appears that the plan 
was to keep away from Waigatz Island, where failure 
had attended the second voyage, and instead to shape 
a northerly course. 
The Finmarken coast is separated from Bear Island 
by a sea 280 miles wide with a depth of 300 fathoms. 
A wonder in the heavens, and how we caught a bear. 
A wild cheerless waste presents itself on the north-western 
half, covered with lakes and marshes, while the south- 
eastern part is mountainous. Mount Misery rises to 1760 
feet in height. The formations are of carboniferous lime- 
stones and sandstones with rich coal beds on the north 
coast. Bear Island may be considered as the southernmost 
headland of the submarine plateau out of which Spitsbergen 
and Franz Josef Land rise. 
Only 105 miles to the north is the South or Look-out 
Cape of Spitsbergen. The Dutch explorers, on leaving 
1 In 1603 Stephen Bennet came to the same island and named it 
Cherrie Island, after his patron Sir Francis Cherrie, an Adventurer of 
the Russia Company. 
