discovered
their first Polar bear. It tried to get into their boat, so they shot
it with a musket, "but the bear showed most wonderful strength, for,
notwithstanding that she was shot into the body, yet she leapt up and
swam in the water; the men that were in the boat, rowing after her,
cast a rope about her neck and drew her at the stern of the boat, for,
not having seen the like bear before, they thought to have carried
her alive in the ship and to have showed her for a strange wonder in
Holland; but she used such force that they were glad they were rid
of her, and contented themselves with her skin only." This they brought
back to Amsterdam in great triumph--their first white Polar bear. But
they went farther north than this, until they came to a plain field
of ice and encountered very misty weather. Still they kept sailing
on, as best they might, round about the ice till they found the land
of Nova Zembla was covered with snow. From "Ice Point" they made their
way to islands which they named Orange Islands after the Dutch Prince.
Here they found two hundred walrus or sea-horses lying on the shore
and basking in the sun.

[Illustration: NOVA ZEMBLA AND THE ARCTIC REGIONS. From a map in De
Bry's _Grands Voyages_, 1598.]

"The sea-horse is a wonderful strong monster of the sea," they brought
back word, "much bigger than an ox, having a skin like a seal, with
very short hair, mouthed like a lion; it hath four feet, but no ears."
The little party of Dutchmen advanced boldly with hatchets and pikes
to kill a few of these monsters to take home, but it was harder work
than they thought. The wind suddenly rose, too, and rent the ice into
great pieces, so they had to content themselves by getting a few of
their ivory teeth, which they reported to be half an ell long. With
these and other treasures Barents was now forced to return from these
high latitudes, and he sailed safely into the Texel after three and
a half months' absence.

His reports of Nova Zembla encouraged the merchants of Amsterdam to
persevere in their search for the kingdoms of Cathay and China by the
north-east, and a second expedition was fitted out under Barents the
following year; but it started too late to accomplish much, and we
must turn to the third expedition for the discovery which has for ever
made famous the name of William Barents. It was yet early in the May
of 1596 when he sailed from Amsterdam with two ships for the third
and last time, bo