FIRST GKINNELL EXPEDITION. 34 7 



expense for the Arctic service. The vessels were 

 placed under the command of Lieut. De Haven. Pi% 

 officers consisted of Mr. Murdoch, sailing-master; Di. 

 E. K. Kane, surgeon and naturalist ; and Mr. Lovell, 

 midshipman. The Advance had a crew of twelve men 

 when she sailed ; but two of them complaining of sick- 

 ness, and expressing a desire to return home, were left 

 at the Danish settlement at Disco Island, on the coast 

 of Greenland. 



The expedition passed the eastern extremity of New- 

 foundland, June 3d, 1850, ten days after leaving Sandy 

 Hook, and then sailed east-north-east, directly for Cape 

 Comfort, on the coast of Greenland. The weather was 

 generally fine ; and only a single accident occurred on 

 the voyage to that country of frost and snow. Off the 

 coast of Labrador they met an iceberg making its way 

 toward the tropics. The night was very dark ; and the 

 Advance, going at the rate of seven or eight knots an 

 hour, ran against the huge voyager, and lost her jib 

 boom. 



The voyagers did not land at Cape Comfort, but, 

 turning northward, sailed along the south-west coast of 

 Greenland, sometimes in an open sea, and sometimes in 

 the midst of broad acres of broken ice (particularly in 

 Davis's Straits), as far as Whale Island. From this 

 place a boat, with two officers and four seamen, was 

 sent to Disco Island, a distance of about twenty-six 

 miles, to a Danish settlement there, to procure skin 

 clothing and other articles necessary for use during the 

 rigors of a polar winter. The officers were entertained 

 at the government house, while the seamen were com- 

 fortably lodged with the Esquimaux, sleeping in fur 

 bao-s at night. They returned to the ship the following 

 day, and the expedition proceeded on its voyage. 

 When passing the little Danish settlement of Uper- 



