SUN DISAPPEARS. 
291 
They were annoyed at first by the visits of bears ; 
but these animals, after short experience, became so 
cautious, that they would be frightened away by 
shoutings or by the sound of trumpets. When they 
came to attack, if at any time, for want of other 
ammunition, a clump of wood or other thing was 
thrown at them, they would, like dogs, run to seize on 
what was so thrown. 
On the 4th of November they wholly lost sight of 
the sun, and in this month the bears disappeared. In 
their stead, foxes came, some of which were caught in 
traps. 
The winter passed with less of suffering than could 
have been expected. Once they were in danger of 
being suffocated by sleeping with a charcoal fire in 
their hut. Towards the end of January the foxes 
disappeared, which was conjectured to be an indi¬ 
cation that the bears would shortly return, and so it 
happened. 
On the 24th of January, as Jacob Heemskirk, 
Oirard le Ver, and another person, were walking from 
their hut to the sea-side, the weather being clear, they 
were surprised with a sight of the northern limb or 
edge of the sun. This, the journal says, was fifteen 
days earlier than, according to calculation, any part 
of the sun could have been visible to them; and 
