At Midnight, Seawards Again
Began To Swirl The Tide, And We Rose To Go, - Not Without
Having First Paid A Visit To The Room Where The Little
Daughters Of The House Lay Folded In Sleep.
Then descending
to the beach, laden with flowers and kind wishes waved
to us by white handkerchiefs held in
Still whiter hands,
we rowed on board; up went the napping sails, and dipping
her ensign in token of adieu - the schooner glided swiftly
on between the walls of rock, until an intervening crag
shut out from our sight the friendly group that had come
forth to bid us "Good speed." In another twenty-four
hours we had threaded our way back through the intricate
fiords; and leaving Hammerfest three or four miles on
the starboard hand, on the evening of the 28th of July,
we passed out between the islands of Soroe and Bolsvoe
into the open sea.
My intention was to go first to Bear Island, and ascertain
for myself in what direction the ice was lying to the
southward of Spitzbergen.
Bear - or Cherie Island, is a diamond-shaped island, about
ten miles long, composed of secondary rocks - principally
sandstone and limestone-lying about 280 miles due north
of the North Cape. It was originally discovered by Barentz,
the 9th of June, 1596, on the occasion of his last and
fatal voyage. Already had he commanded two expeditions
sent forth by the United Provinces to discover a north-east
passage to that dream-land - Cathay; and each time, after
penetrating to the eastward of Nova Zembla, he had been
foiled by the impenetrable line of ice.
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