Thursday (23) being calme, we plyed to the windwards, the winde being
Northerly. We had the latitude this day at noone in 70 degrees 11 minutes.
We had not runne past two houres Northwest, the wind being at Northnortheast and Northeast and by North a good gale, but we met againe with another heape of ice: we wethered the head of it, and lay a time to the seawards, and made way West 6 leagues.
Friday (24) at a Southeast sunne we cast about to the Eastwards, the wind being at Northnortheast: the latitude this day at noone was 70 degrees 15 minutes.
On S. Iames his day (25) bolting to the windewardes, we had the latitude at noone in seuenty degrees twentie minutes. The same day at a Southwest sunne, there was a monstrous Whale aboord of us, so neere to our side that we might haue thrust a sworde or any other weapon in him, which we durst not doe for feare hee should haue ouerthrowen our shippe: and then I called my company together, and all of vs shouted, and with the crie that we made he departed from vs: there was as much aboue water of his backe as the bredth of our pinnesse, and at his falling downe, he made such a terrible noyse in the water that a man would greatly haue maruelled, except hee had knowen the cause of it: but God be thanked, we were quietly deliuered of him. [Footnote: Of the various species of Whales, the Narwhal occurs very rarely off Novaya Zemlya. It is more common at Hope Island, and Witsen states that large herds have been seen between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. The White Whale (Delphinapterus leucas, Pallas), on the other hand, occurs in large shoals on the coasts of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. In 1871, 2167 White Whales were taken by the Tromsoe fleet alone, an estimated value of £6500. In 1880, one vessel had 300 whales at one cast of the net, in Magdalena Bay. In former times they appear to have been caught at the mouth of the Yenisej, which river they ascend several hundred miles. Nordenskiold also saw large shoals off the Taimur peninsula. Other species occur seldom off Novaya Zemlya. It is rather amusing to find the meeting with a whale mentioned as very remarkable and dangerous. When Nearchus sailed with the fleet of Alexander the Great from the Indus to the Red Sea, a whale also caused so great a panic that it was only with difficulty that the commander could restore order among the frightened seamen, and get the rowers to row to the place where the Whale spouted water and caused a commotion in the sea like that of a whirlwind. All the men shouted, struck the water with their oars, and sounded their trumpets, so that the large, and, in the judgment of the Macedonian Heroes, terrible animal, was frightened. (See the "Indica" of Nearchus, preserved to us by Arrian, an excellent translation of which, by J. W. McCrindle, appeared in 1879.) Quite otherwise was the Whale regarded on Spitsbergen some few years after Burrough's voyage. At the sight of a Whale all men were beside themselves with joy, and rushed down into the boats in order to attack and kill the valuable, animal. The fishery was carried on with such success, that the right Whale (Balaena mysticetus L.), whose pursuit then gave full employment to ships by hundreds, and to men by tens of thousands, is now practically extirpated. As this Whale still occurs in no limited numbers in other parts of the Polar Sea, this state of things shows how easily an animal is driven away from a region where it is so much hunted. Captain Svend Foeyn, from 1864 to 1881, exclusively hunted another species (Balænoptera Sibbaldii Gray), on the coast of Finmark; and other species still follow shoals of fish on the Norwegian coast, where they sometimes strand and are killed in considerable numbers. (Nordenskiöld's Voyage of the Vega, vol. I., p. 165).] And a little after we spied certaine Islands, with which we bare, and found good harbor in 15 or 18 fadome, and blacke oze: we came to an anker at a Northeast sunne, and named the Island S. Iames his Island, [Footnote: Evidently one of the Islands at the south of Novaya Zemlya.] where we found fresh water.
Sunday, (26) much wind blowing we rode still.
Munday (27) I went on shoare and tooke the latitude, which was 70 degrees 42 minutes: the variation of the compasse was 7 degrees and a halfe from the North to the West.
Tuesday (28) we plyed to the Westwards alongst the shoare, the wind being at Northwest, and as I was about to come to anker, we saw a sayle comming about the point, whereunder we thought to haue ankered. [Sidenote: The relation of Loshak.] Then I sent a skiffe aboord of him, and at their coming aboord they tooke acquaintance of them and the chiefe man said hee had bene in our company in the riuer Cola, and also declared unto them that we were past the way which should bring vs to the Ob. This land, sayd he, is called Noua Zembla, that is to say, the New land: and then he came aboord himselfe with his skiffe, and at his comming aboord he told me the like, and sayd further, that in this Noua Zembla is the highest mountaine in the worlde, as he thought, [Footnote: The highest mountains in Novaya Zemlya hardly exceed 3500 feet.] and that Camen Boldshay, which is on the maine of Pechora, is not to be compared to this mountaine, but I saw it not: he made me also certaine demonstrations of the way to the Ob, and seemed to make haste on his owne way, being very lothe to tarie, because the yeere was farre past, and his neighbour had fet Pechora, and not he: so I gaue him a steele glasse, two pewter spoones, and a paire of veluet sheathed knives: and then he seemed somewhat the more willing to tary, and shewed me as much as he knew for our purpose: he also gaue me 17 wilde geese, and shewed me that foure of their lodias were driuen perforce from Caninoze to this Noua Zembla. This mans name was Loshak.
Wednesday, (29) as we plied to the Eastwards, we espied another saile, which was one of this Loshaks company, and we bare roome, and spake with him, who in like sort tolde vs of the Ob, as the other had done.
Thursday, (30) we plied to the Eastwards, the winde being at Eastnortheast.
Friday, (31) the gale of winde began to increase, and came Westerly withall, so that by a Northwest sunne we were at an anker among the Islands of Vaigats, where we saw two small lodias, the one of them came aboard of vs, and presented me with a great loafe of bread: and they told me that they were all of Colmogro, except one man that dwelt at Pechora, who seemed to be the chiefest among them in killing of the Morse.