84 54 graden ende 38 minuten. This is a misprint. It should be “38 degrees and 54 minutes”, from which deducting 21° 54′, the sun’s declination, there remains 27°, the complement of the height of the Pole; so that the latitude is 73°. ↑
85 Willebuijs landt. On the 14th of August, 1553, the unfortunate Sir Hugh Willoughby discovered land in 72° N. lat., 160 leagues E. by N. from Seynam on the coast of Norway. In consequence of this discovery, some of the old charts showed in this direction a separate coast line, to which they gave the name of Willoughby’s Land. It is to this that De Veer alludes. It is, however, now fully established that no such land exists; and there is every reason for the opinion that the coast seen by Willoughby was that of Novaya Zemlya itself. This opinion is entertained by Lütke, as well as by most geographers at the present day. See Mr. Rundall’s Narratives of Voyages towards the North-West, Introd., p. v. ↑
86 Een eetmael langh—during four and twenty hours. The English translator must be excused for not understanding this expression, when even the Amsterdam Latin version of 1598 has durante prandio. Whatever may be the derivation of the expression, there can be no doubt as to its real meaning. ↑
88 Here, again, the same error is committed as on the 19th of June (see page 77, note 4). The calculation is as follows:—
| 37° 55′ | Elevation of the sun. | |
| 21° 15′ | Declination of the sun. | |
| ——— | ||
| 16° 40′ | Complem. of elev. of Pole. | |
| 90° 0′ | ||
| ——— | ||
| 74° 40′ | Elevation of the Pole. | |
| ——— | ||
| But which should be | 73° 20′ | |
| ——— |
89 In this they were mistaken, owing to their error in the calculation of their observed latitude, as is shown in the preceding note. On their [90]former visit to Lomsbay (see page 13) they made its latitude to be 74° 20′; so that now, instead of being near that spot, they must have been about a degree to the south of it. This corresponds, too, better with their observation on the following day; for it is not to be imagined that they should have been 24 hours under full-sail, and yet have made only 20 miles of northing on a N.E. by N. course. ↑
97 Here are two errors. In the first place, the difference between the sun’s elevation and declination is not 14°, but 14° 15′. This is, manifestly, an error of the press. Then, in the same way as on the 19th of June and 17th of July (see pages 77 and 89), 90°—14° 15′ is made to be 76° 15′, whereas it should be 75° 45′, which is the true latitude. ↑
99 This would seem to be a misprint for 27°, as all the other observations made in Novaya Zemlya tend to show that at that time the variation was from 2 to 2½ points. The subject is discussed in the Introduction. ↑
106 Nae ons toe, om voor by ’t schip op te climmen—towards us, in order to climb up the bow of the ship. ↑
107 Wy hadden boven opt schip ons schuyten seijl gheschoren—we had placed the sail of our boat on deck as a screen. ↑
125 De Eylandt van Oraengien. On the first voyage the Islands of Orange are spoken of. See page 25. ↑
128 Be reijs ghewonnen waer—i.e., the object of the voyage was attained, and they had become entitled to the reward offered by the States General, as mentioned on page 70. ↑
154 Koe-voeten—crow-bars: literally cows’-feet, from the resemblance which the bifurcated end bears to the cloven foot of that animal. In one of the printed accounts of the riots of 1780 (the reference to which cannot just now be found), it is mentioned that a pig’s-foot—the “jemmy” little tool used by housebreakers—was employed in the destruction of Newgate, and surprise was expressed at the power of so small an instrument to move the large stones of which that building was constructed. The small iron hammer common in our printing-offices is likewise called a sheep’s-foot; the reason for the name being in each case the same. ↑
170 Soo dat de scheck achter van den steven geschoven werde—so that the ice-knees (chocks) started from the stern-post. ↑
172 Ende de bouteloef brack mede stucken met een nieu cabeltou dat wy op het ys hadden vast ghemaeckt—and the bumpkin likewise broke away, with a new cable, which we had made fast to the ice. The bouteloef or botteloef (in English, bumpkin) is a piece of iron, projecting from the [103]stem of the ship, and used for the purpose of giving more breadth to the fore-sail. It is no longer met with in square-rigged vessels, but only in small craft. It would seem to be one of the last things to which a seaman would attach a cable; but it may have been merely temporarily, or for some reason that cannot now be discovered. ↑
173 Jae, datter ys berghen dreven, soo groot als de soutberghen in Spaengien—yea, there drifted icebergs by us, as big as the salt mountains in Spain. Allusion is evidently here made to the celebrated salt mines of Cardona, about sixteen leagues from Barcelona, where “the great body of the salt forms a rugged precipice, which is reckoned between 400 and 500 feet in height”. See Dr. Traill’s “Observations” on the subject, in Trans. Geol. Soc. (1st ser.), vol. iii, p. 404. Our author’s familiar comparison of the icebergs to these salt rocks, may be taken as a proof that he had been in Spain, and was personally acquainted with the locality. ↑