Numerous coffins--an underground burial being impossible in this frost-hardened earth--still bear witness to those busy times, and also to the great mortality among the fishermen, caused doubtless by their intemperate habits. They are particularly abundant at Smeerenberg, where Admiral Beechey saw upwards of one thousand of them; boards with English inscriptions were erected over a few, but the greater number were Dutch, and had been deposited in the eighteenth century. Some coffins having been opened, the corpses were found in a state of perfect preservation, and even the woollen caps and stockings of the mariners, who might perhaps have rested for more than a century _on_ this cold earth, were still apparently as new as if they had been but recently put on. [Illustration: 72. BURIAL IN SPITZBERGEN.] In the seventeenth century the English and the Dutch made several attempts to establish permanent settlements in Spitzbergen. The Russia Company tried to engage volunteers by the promise of a liberal pay, and as none came forward, a free pardon was offered to criminals who would undertake to winter in Bell Sound. A few wretches, tired of confinement, accepted the proposal, but when the fleet was about to depart, and they saw the gloomy hills, and felt the howling north-eastern gales, their hearts failed them, and they entreated the captain who had charge of them to take them back to London and let them be hanged. Their request to be taken back was complied with, but the company generously interceded for them, and obtained their pardon. Some time after, in the year 1630, an English whaler landed eight men in Bell Sound to hunt reindeer. They remained on shore during the night, but meanwhile a storm had arisen, and on the following morning their ship had vanished out of sight. It was towards the end of August, and they had no hope of rescue at this advanced period of the year. Their despair may be imagined, but they soon recovered their courage, and wisely determined to make preparations for the impending winter, instead of losing time in useless lamentations. Their first care was to lay in a stock of food, and in a short time they had killed nineteen reindeer and four bears. Fortunately they found in Bell Sound the necessary materials for the erection of a hut. A large shed fifty feet long and thirty-eight broad had been built as a workshop for the men of the Russia Company, and they very judiciously constructed their small hut of stones and thick planks within this inclosed space. They thus gained a better protection against the icy wind and room for exercise during stormy weather, one of the best preservatives against the scurvy. They made their beds and winter dresses of the skins of the animals they had killed, sewing them together with needles made of bone splinters, and using disentangled rope-ends as thread. [Illustration: 73. ARCTIC FOX.]