For, for the space of sixe houres, it was as much as we could
doe to keepe our shippe aloofe from one heape of ice, and beare roomer from
another, with as much wind as we might beare a coarse. And when we had past
from the danger of this ice, we lay to the Eastwards close by the wind.
The next day (22) we were againe troubled with the ice.
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 L6500. 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.
