272 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
26th, latitude was observed 69° 43' N. On a point of 
land of the Waigatz they found a number of wooden 
images rudely carved to resemble men, women, and 
children, not fewer than three or four hundred, loosely 
heaped one upon another. Linschoten naturally con¬ 
jectures that when a Samoyede dies, his friends conse¬ 
crate an image to his memory. Some of these were 
worm-eaten and quite decayed ; others new and re¬ 
cently carved. Some had several visages on the same 
trunk, as if to represent many persons of the same 
family. “ No graves, or bones, or other mark of ceme¬ 
tery or repository of the dead, were found here, and 
perhaps the Samoyedes bring their images here at 
certain seasons of the year.” This cape was named 
the Cape of Idols. Another cape of Waigatz, more 
advanced in the Strait, was named Kruyz Hoek, which 
signifies Cape of the Cross. 
On the 29th, an ice island half a league in length 
drifted through the Strait. It was narrow and came 
length way; “if it had lain athwart it would have 
entirely closed the passage.” One of the ships was at 
anchor within a projecting point of land, and thither 
the other went for shelter. The water of the sea here 
was remarked to be clear, of a deep blue like the water 
of the ocean, and very salt. 
Smokes had been seen rising from different places 
on the coast, and at small distances within, and men 
