GERARD LE VER. 
279 
the atmosphere, which frequently would not permit 
them to see a ship’s length before them, and rendered 
the navigation perilous. Tliey continued their course 
W. by N. till noon on the 12th, when the latitude was 
observed 71° 10'N. 
They repassed the Strait on the 14th, and on the 15th 
were joined by Barentsz, returning from the North of 
Nova Zembla. Girard le Ver,* who has written an 
account of the Northern voyage, and describes this 
meeting, relates, that “ afterwards discoursing together 
concerning the places they had seen in their voyage, 
and what each had discovered, he of Enchuysen said, 
that when he was past the Waigatz he found the sea 
open, and had sailed good 50 or 60 leagues to the 
East, so that he was persuaded he was about as far as 
where the river Ob, which descends from Tartary, falls 
into the sea, and that the land of Tartary there extends 
again to the North-east. And he conjectured that he 
was not far from Cape Tabin, which is the exterior 
angle of Tartary, whence the coast declines towards the 
kingdom of Cathay, extending first towards the South¬ 
east and then towards the South. That having thus 
much discovered, as it was late in the year, and their 
commission ordered them to return before the winter, 
* Of the three voyages made by W. Barentsz to the North-east, 
Girard le Ver sailed with him in the second and third ; but wrote a 
history of all the three. 
