DR. KANE'S FAMOUS ARCTIC VOYAGE 279 



loaded with provisions, blankets, and other articles, and then buried. 

 Along her gunwale were placed the heaviest rocks the men could 

 handle; and after the interstices had been filled up with smaller 

 stones and sods of andromeda and moss, sand and water were 

 poured among the layers. All this, frozen at once into a solid mass, 

 would be hard enough, it was hoped, to resist the claws of the 

 Polar bear. 



Continuing his adventurous course, he passed through the 

 drifting ice to some distance beyond Cape Lifeboat Cove and took 

 shelter in a beautiful little bay, landlocked from east to west, and 

 accessible only from the north, which he named Refuge Harbor. It 

 was some time before the ice broke up sufficiently to permit of his 

 effecting his escape; and even after he had once more got out into 

 the channel, he had a daily fight with bergs and floes. At one time, 

 while anchored off a rocky island which he called "Godsend Ledge/' 

 a perfect hurricane came on ; and though he had three hawsers out, 

 they snapped one after the other, like mere threads, and the "Ad- 

 vance" drifted to and fro at the mercy of the "wild ice." His only 

 hope of safety lay in mooring close to a berg ; and this effected, the 

 brig was towed along by a gigantic courser "the spray dashing 

 over his windward flanks, and his forehead plowing up the lesser 

 ice as if in scorn." Drifting masses, broken up and hurtled together 

 by a tremendous storm, threatened them with destruction; and the 

 explorers were thankful when, on the 22d, the gale abated, and they 

 carried their little vessel into comparatively smooth water, sheltered 

 by the ice-belt which lined the rocky and mountainous coast. 



Having secured a haven of safety for the "Advance," Dr. Kane 

 resolved to make a personal inspection of the coast, in order to select 

 a convenient winter-station from which he might start on his sledge- 

 journeys in the following spring. For this purpose he had caused 

 his best and lightest whale-boat to be fitted with a canvas cover, that 

 rendered it not less comfortable than a tent. A supply of pemmican 

 was packed in small cases, and a sledge taken to pieces stowed away 



