th the glad tidings.
But Barendz shook his head. Many days must elapse, he said, before the
declination of the sun should be once more 14 deg., at which point in the
latitude of 76 deg. they had lost sight of the luminary on the 4th
November, and at which only it could again be visible. This, according to
his calculations, would be on the 10th February. Two days of mirky and
stormy atmosphere succeeded, and those who had wagered in support of the
opinion of Barendz were inclined to triumph over those who believed in
the observation of Heemskerk. On the 27th January there was, however, no
mistake. The sky was bright, and the whole disk of the sun was most
distinctly seen by all, although none were able to explain the
phenomenon, and Barendz least of all. They had kept accurate diaries ever
since their imprisonment, and although the clocks sometimes had stopped,
the hour-glasses had regularly noted the lapse of time. Moreover, Barendz
knew from the Ephemerides for 1589 to 1600, published by Dr. Joseph Scala
in Venice, a copy of which work he had brought with him, that on the 24th
January, 1597, the moon would be seen at one o'clock A.M. at Venice, in
conjunction with Jupiter. He accordingly took as good an observation as
could be done with the naked eye and found that conjunction at six
o'clock A.M. Of the same day, the two bodies appearing in the same
vertical line in the sign of Taurus. The date was thus satisfactorily
established, and a calculation of the longitude of the house was deduced
with an accuracy which in those circumstances was certainly commendable.
Nevertheless, as the facts and the theory of refraction were not
thoroughly understood, nor Tycho Brahe's tables of refraction generally
known, pilot Barendz could not be expected to be wiser than his
generation.

The startling discovery that in the latitude of 76 deg. the sun
reappeared on the 24th January, instead of the 10th February, was
destined to awaken commotion throughout the whole scientific world, and
has perhaps hardly yet been completely explained.

But the daylight brought no mitigation of their sufferings. The merciless
cold continued without abatement, and the sun seemed to mock their
misery. The foxes disappeared, and the ice-bears in their stead swarmed
around the house, and clambered at night over the roof. Again they
constantly fought with them for their lives. Daily the grave question was
renewed whether the men should feed on the bears or