That nothing might be omitted, lots were drawn for king, and the choice fell on the gunner, who was forthwith proclaimed monarch of Nova Zembla.  Certainly no men, could have exhibited more undaunted cheerfulness amid bears and foxes, icebergs and cold—­such as Christians had never conceived of before—­than did these early arctic pilgrims.  Nor did Barendz neglect any opportunity of studying the heavens.  A meridian was drawn near the house, on which the compass was placed, and observations of various stars were constantly made, despite the cold, with extraordinary minuteness.  The latitude, from concurrent measurement of the Giant, the Bull, Orion, Aldebaran, and other constellations—­in the absence of the sun—­was ascertained to be a little above seventy-six degrees, and the variations of the needle were accurately noted.

On the 24th January it was clear weather and comparatively mild, so that Heemskerk, with De Veer and another, walked to the strand.  To their infinite delight and surprise they again saw the disk of the sun on the edge of the horizon, and they all hastened back with the glad tidings.  But Barendz shook his head.  Many days must elapse, he said, before the declination of the sun should be once more 14 deg., at which point in the latitude of 76 deg. they had lost sight of the luminary on the 4th November, and at which only it could again be visible.  This, according to his calculations, would be on the 10th February.  Two days of mirky and stormy atmosphere succeeded, and those who had wagered in support of the opinion of Barendz were inclined to triumph over those who believed in the observation of Heemskerk.  On the 27th January there was, however, no mistake.  The sky was bright, and the whole disk of the sun was most distinctly seen by all, although none were able to explain the phenomenon, and Barendz least of all.  They had kept accurate diaries ever since their imprisonment, and although the clocks sometimes had stopped, the hour-glasses had regularly noted the lapse of time.  Moreover, Barendz knew from the Ephemerides for 1589 to 1600, published by Dr. Joseph Scala in Venice, a copy of which work he had brought with him, that on the 24th January, 1597, the moon would be seen at one o’clock A.M. at Venice, in conjunction with Jupiter.  He accordingly took as good an observation as could be done with the naked eye and found that conjunction at six o’clock A.M.  Of the same day, the two bodies appearing in the same vertical line in the sign of Taurus.  The date was thus satisfactorily established, and a calculation of the longitude of the house was deduced with an accuracy which in those circumstances was certainly commendable.  Nevertheless, as the facts and the theory of refraction were not thoroughly understood, nor Tycho Brahe’s tables of refraction generally known, pilot Barendz could not be expected to be wiser than his generation.

The startling discovery that in the latitude of 76 deg. the sun reappeared on the 24th January, instead of the 10th February, was destined to awaken commotion throughout the whole scientific world, and has perhaps hardly yet been completely explained.