On the 31/21st October, the crew began to remove into the house, where they afterwards passed the winter 1596-97 with many sufferings, dangers, difficulties, and privations which are described in De Veer's work. The crew, however, never lost courage, which undoubtedly was a principal cause of most of them being saved. The house was built on the north-east side of Novaya Zemlya, on the shore of Barents' Ice Haven. It was situated far to the north of any other place where men had previously passed the winter. The land and its animal life was unknown, the hard frozen, almost rock-fast and yet continually moving ice-covering, with which the sea was bound, was something quite novel, as also were the effects which long continued and severe cold exerts on animate and inanimate objects. Before the attempt was made it was not considered at all certain that men could actually endure the severe cold of the highest north and the winter night three or four months long. No wonder therefore that the skill and undaunted resolution of the Dutch Polar explorers aroused unmingled admiration among all civilised nations, and that the narrative of their wintering was received with unbounded interest and formed the subject of innumerable writings and reproductions both in prose and verse in almost all civilised languages. Only a few facts from the journal of the wintering need therefore be given here. [Illustration: BARENTS' HOUSE, OUTSIDE. From De Veer. ] [Illustration: BARENTS' HOUSE, INSIDE. From De Bry. ]