ly
intelligence, ordered the six bodies to be put into coffins, and,
along with the seventh, deposited beneath the snow. Afterwards, when
the earth thawed, they were removed, and interred, on St. John's day,
under a general discharge of the cannon of the fleet.

SEAMEN WINTERING IN SPITZBERGEN.

On the 30th of August 1633, the Dutch fleet sailed from North-Bay, in
Spitzbergen, leaving seven men behind, who had agreed to winter there.
Immediately, on departure of the vessels, they began to collect a
sufficient quantity of provisions to serve their necessities until
their comrades should return in the subsequent year. Therefore, at
different times, they hunted rein-deer with success, and caught many
sea-fowl; and also occasionally got herbs, which proved very salutary.

Excursions both by sea and land were frequently made when the weather
would permit; and they endeavored to kill whales and narwhals in the
different bays on the east coast of Spitzbergen.

The extreme cold of the climate was announced by the disappearance of
all the feathered tribe on the third of October, and from that time it
gradually augmented. On the 13th their casks of beer were frozen three
inches thick, and very soon afterwards, though standing within eight
feet of the fire, they froze from top to bottom. The seamen had broke
the ice on the sea, and disposed a net for catching fish below it; but
the rigour of the weather constantly increasing, the ice formed a foot
thick at the surface in the space of two hours.

From the excessive cold, they remained almost constantly in bed, and,
notwithstanding they had both a grate and a stove, they were
sometimes obliged to rise and take violent exercise to keep themselves
in heat.

Beautiful phenomena appeared in the sky during winter, consisting of
the Aurora Borealis, of surprising splendour and magnitude, and other
meteors seeming to arise from the icy mountains.

On the third of March the mariners had an encounter with a monstrous
bear, in which one of them very nearly perished. The animal became
furious from its wounds; leaping against a seaman, about to pierce it
with his lance, it threw him down, and, but for the opportune
interposition of another, would have torn him to pieces.

At length, after suffering many hardships and privations the mariners
were gladdened with the sight of a boat rowing into the bay, on the
27th of May 1634, announcing the return of a Dutch Greenlandman, which