Note 201 — INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Mr. Fisher’s words are:—“The testimony of De Veer, who wrote the particulars and who accompanied Barentz to Nova Zembla in his third voyage, where he wintered in latitude 76° N., in the year 1596–7, has been so often called in question, with respect to his account of the re-appearance of the sun, that it is but justice to state that he appears to be perfectly correct, and his observations consistent with those made during this voyage.201 He reports that he, in company with two others, saw the edge of the sun from the sea side, on the south side of Nova Zembla, on the 24th of January (or the 3rd of February, new style) at which time the sun’s declination when it passed the meridian in that longitude was about 16° 48′ S., and therefore the true meridian depression of the upper limb at noon was 2° 32′ nearly, which ought to have been the amount of the refraction [so] that the limb might have been visible. Now, if the observation at the least apparent altitude observed on the 23rd January, 1823, at Igloolik, which was 8′ 40″, be reduced to the horizon, by observing the rapid law of increase in the refraction visible in the series of observations made on that day, the horizontal refraction cannot be estimated at less than 2° 30′, and which, if increased by the apparent dip (which sometimes amounts to more than 20′ in the winter time, as I have mentioned when speaking of the terrestrial refraction), will be quite sufficient to render the upper limb visible; and there is still less difficulty in believing that they ‘saw the sunne in his full roundnesse above the horizon’ three days afterwards, since the daily motion in declination at that time of the year is nearly 18 minutes to the northward.