ore to rise and the
ice still drave harder and harder, so that our boat was broken in pieces
between the ship and the ice, and it seemed as if the ship would be
crushed in pieces too."

As the August days passed on, they tried to get out of their prison,
but it was impossible, and there was nothing for it but to winter "in
great cold, poverty, misery, and grief" in this bleak and barren spot.
The successful pilot was to explore no more, but the rest of the tragic
tale must be shortly told. With the ice heaping high, "as the salt
hills that are in Spain," and the ship in danger of going to pieces,
they collected trees and roots driven on to the desolate shores from
Tartary, "wherewith as if God had purposely sent them unto us we were
much comforted." Through the September days they drew wood across the
ice and snow to build a house for the winter. Only sixteen men could
work and they were none too strong and well.

[Illustration: BARENTS'S SHIP AMONG THE ARCTIC ICE. From a coloured
woodcut in the account of Barents's three voyages by Gerard de Veer,
published in 1598.]

Throughout October and November they were snowed up in their winter
hut, with "foul stormie weather" outside, the wind blowing ceaselessly
out of the north and snow lying deep around. They trapped a few foxes
from day to day to eat, making warm caps out of their fur; they heated
stones and took them into their cabin beds, but their sheets froze
as they washed them and at last their clock froze too.

"They looked pitifully upon one another, being in great fear that if
the extremity of the cold grew to be more and more we should all die
there with the cold." Christmas came and went and they comforted one
another by remembering that the sun was as low as it could go, and
that it must begin to come to them again; but "as the day lengthens,
so the cold strengthens," and the snow now lay deeper until it covered
the roof of their house.

The New Year found them still imprisoned, "with great cold, danger,
and disease." January, February, March, April passed and still the
little ship was stuck fast in the ice. But as the sun began to gain
power, hope revived, and they began to repair their boats, to make
new sails, and repair tackle. They were too weak and ill to do much
work, but by the middle of June the boats were fairly ready and they
could cut a way through the ice to the open sea. This was their only
hope of escape, to leave the ship behind and embark