small distance from one of them called East Spitzber gen; having approached this island, within almost two miles, their vessel was suddenly surrounded with ice, and they found themselves in an extremely dangerous situa

tion.

In this alarming state a council was held; when the mate informed them, that he recollected to have heard that some of the people of Mesen, some time before, having formed a resolution of wintering upon this island, had accordingly carried from that city timber proper for building a but, and actually erected one at some distance from the shore.

This information induced the whole company to resolve on wintering there, if the hut, as they hoped, still remained; for they clearly perceived the imminent danger they were in, and that they must inevitably perish if they continued in the ship. They dispatched therefore four of their crew in search of the hut, or any other succour they could meet with.

As the shore on which they were to land was uninhabited, it was necessary they should take some provision for their expedition. They had almost two miles to travel over loose ridges of ice, which being raised by the waves, and driving against each other by the wind, rendered their way equally difficult and dangerous, prudence therefore forbade them to load themselves too much, lest being over-burthened they should sink in between the pieces of ice and perish.

Having thus maturely considered the nature of their undertaking, they provided themselves with a musket and powder-horn, containing 12 charges of powder, with as many balls, an axe, a small kettle, a bag with about 20 pounds of flour, a tinder-box and tinder, a bladder

filled with tobacco, and every man his wooden pipe. Thus accoutred, our sailors quickly arrived on the island, little suspecting what would befal them.

They began with exploring the country, and soon disco vered the hut they were in search of, about a mile and a half from the shore. It was 36 feet in length, 18 feet in height, and as many in breadth. It contained a small antichamber, about 12 feet broad, which had two doors, the one to shut it from the outer air, the other to form a communication with the inner room, this contributed greatly to keep the larger room warm, when once heated. In the large room was an earthen stove, constructed in the Russian manner; that is, a kind of oven without a chimney, which serves occasionally either for baking, for heating the room, or, as is customary among the Russian Peasants, in very cold weather, for a place to sleep upon.

The reader must not be surprised at my mentioning a room without a chimney, for the houses inhabited by the lower class of people in Russia are seldom built otherwise. When a fire is kindled in one of those stoves, the room, as well may be supposed, is filled with smoke, to give vent to which, the door and three or four windows are opened. These windows are each a foot in height, and about six inches wide, they are cut out of the beams whereof the house is built, and by means of a sliding board they may, as occasion requires it, be shut very close. When therefore, a fire is made in the stove, the smoke descends no lower than the windows, through the door it finds a vent, according to the directions of the wind, and persons may continue in the room without feeling any great incon

venience from it.

They rejoiced greatly at having discovered the hut, which had suffered much from the weather, it having now

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adventurers, however

Early next morning

been built a considerable time; our contrived to pass the night in it. they hastened to the shore, impatient to inform their comrades of their success, and also to procure from their vessel such provisions, ammunition, and other necessaries as might better enable them to winter on the island..

I leave the reader to imagine the astonishment and agony of mind those poor people must have felt, when on reaching the place of their landing, they saw nothing but an open sea, free from the ice, which but a day before had covered the ocean.. A violent storm which had a risen during the night, had certainly been the cause of this disastrous event. But they could not tell whether the ice which had before hemmed in the vessel, agitated by the violence of the waves had been driven against her, and shattered her to pieces; or whether she had been carried by the current into the main, a circumstance which frequently happens in those seas.

This melancholy event depriving the unhappy men of all hope of ever being able to quit the island, they return. ed to the hut full of horror and despair.

Their first attention was employed in devising means of providing subsistence, and for repairing their hut. The twelve charges, of powder, they had brought with them, soon procured them as many rein deer, in which the island abounded.

The but, as was before observed, had sustained consid erable injury from the weather, for in many places of the building, there were cracks between the boards which freely admitted the air. This inconveniency was, however, easily remedied, as they had an axe, and the beams were still sound, (for wood, in those cold climates, continues through a length of years unimpaired by worms or decay,) Vol. I.

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so it was easy for them to make the boards join again very tolerably; besides moss growing in great abundance all over the island, there was more than sufficient to stop the crevices, which wooden houses must always be li able to.

Repairs of this kind cost the unhappy men the less trouble being Russians, for all Russian peasants are known to be good carpenters; they build their own houses, and are very expert in handling the axe.

The intense cold, which makes those climates habitable to few species of animals, renders them equally unfit for the production of vegetables. No species of tree, or even shrub, are found on any of the islands of Spitzbergen, a circumstance of the most alarming nature to sailors. Without fire it was impossible to resist the rigour of the climate; and without wood how was that fire to be produced or supported: Providence, however, so ordered it, that in this particular the sea supplies the defect of the land.

In wandering along the beach, they collected plenty of wood, which had been driven ashore by the waves, and which at first consisted of the wrecks of ships, and afterwards of whole trees with their roots, the produce of some 'hospitable, but to them, unknown climate, which the overflowing of rivers, or other accidents had sent into the

ocean.

"Nothing proved of more essential service to the unfor

tunate men, during the first year of their exile, than some 'boards they found upon the beach, having a long iron hook, some nails of about five or six inches long, and proportionably thick, and other bits of iron fixed in them; the melancholy relicks of some vessel cast away in those remote parts. These were thrown ashore by the waves,

at a time when the want of powder gave our men reason to apprehend that they must fall a piey to hunger, as they had nearly consumed those rein-deer they had killed. This lucky circumstance was attended with another equally fortanate, they found on the shore a root of a fir tree, which nearly approached the figure of a bow.

As Necessity has ever been the Mother of Invention, so they soon fashioned this root to a good bow, by the help of a knife, but still wanted a string and arrows.

Not knowing how to procure these, they resolved upon making a couple of lances to defend themselves against the white bears, by far the most ferocious of their kind, whose attacks they had great reason to dread.

Finding they could neither make the heads of lances nor of their arrows without the help of a hammer they contrived to form the large iron hook, mentioned above, into one, by heating it and widening a hole it happened to have about its middle, with the help of one of their largest nails. This received the handle, and a round button at one end of the hook served for the face of the hammer. A large peeble supplied the place of an anvil and a couple of rein-deer's horns made the tongs.

By the means of such tools, they made two heads of spears, and after polishing and sharping them with stones, they tied them as fast as possible with thongs made of rein-deer's skins, to sticks about the thickness of a man's arm, which they got from some branches of trees that had been cast on shore.

Thus equipped with spears, they resolved to attack a White Bear, and after a most dangerous encounter, they killed the formidable creature, and thereby made a new supply of provisions. The tendons they saw with much pleasure, could with little or no trouble be divided into filaments

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