It was Linschoten’s sanguine report expressing a full conviction that the northern route to the Indies was discovered which induced the Dutch merchants to undertake a second voyage on a larger scale. Seven vessels were fitted out, two in Zeeland, two from Enkhuizen, two from Amsterdam, and one from Rotterdam. The _Griffin_ and _Swan_ from Zeeland were again under Cornelis Nai, the _Hope_ of Enkhuizen was commanded by Tetgales, and Barentsz had the _Greyhound_ of Amsterdam and was chief pilot. Linschoten, Jacob van Heemskerk, and Jan Cornells Rijp were the supercargos. Linschoten was also a Commissioner on behalf of Prince Maurice of Orange and the States General. The ships assembled at the Texel and sailed on the 2nd July, 1595. On the 19th August they reached the entrance of Pet Strait which was closed with ice, “most frightful to behold,” writes Linschoten. Parties were sent across Waigatz Island to report on the state of the ice in the Kara Sea. Barentsz himself crossed to the mainland to get information from the Samoyeds, and several efforts were made to pass through the ice, but all in vain. The crews began to murmur. The attempt was accordingly abandoned and the fleet returned to Holland in October[37]. The total failure of this voyage caused great disappointment, and the States General decided that no further attempt should be made at the public expense. Barentsz, however, supported by Plancius, persisted in the opinion that a passage might be effected round the north of Novaya Zemlya, so the merchants of Amsterdam were induced to fit out one more expedition. It consisted of two vessels, one commanded by Jacob van Heemskerk, the other by Jan Cornells Rijp. Barentsz went with Heemskerk as chief pilot. On the 9th June, 1596, the two ships came to a small steep island north of the Finmarken coast which received the name of Bear Island[38]. It appears that the plan was to keep away from Waigatz Island, where failure had attended the second voyage, and instead to shape a northerly course. [Illustration: A wonder in the heavens, and how we caught a bear.] The Finmarken coast is separated from Bear Island by a sea 280 miles wide with a depth of 300 fathoms. A wild cheerless waste presents itself on the north-western half, covered with lakes and marshes, while the south-eastern part is mountainous. Mount Misery rises to 1760 feet in height. The formations are of carboniferous limestones and sandstones with rich coal beds on the north coast. Bear Island may be considered as the southernmost headland of the submarine plateau out of which Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land rise.