FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 355 



and soon the long polar night, with all its darkness and 

 horrors, would fall upon them. Slowly they drifted in 

 those vast fields of ice, whither, or to what result, they 

 knew not. Locked in the moving yet compact mass ', 

 liable every moment to be crushed ; far away from land ; 

 the mercury sinking daily lower and lower from the zero 

 figure, toward the point where that metal freezes, they 

 felt small hope of ever reaching home again. Yet they 

 prepared for winter comforts and winter sports, as cheer- 

 fully as if lying safe in Barlow's Inlet. As the winter 

 advanced, the crews of both vessels went on board the 

 larger one. They unshipped the rudders of each to 

 prevent their being injured by the ice, covered the deck 

 of the Advance with felt, prepared their stores, and 

 made arrangements for enduring the long winter, now 

 upon them. Physical and mental activity being neces- 

 sary for the preservation of health, they daily exercised 

 in the open air for several hours. They built ice huts, 

 hunted the huge white bears and the little polar foxes, 

 and, during the darkness of the winter night, they 

 arranged in-door amusements and employments. 



Before the end of October, the sun made its appear- 

 ance for the last time, and the awful polar night closed 

 in. Early in November they wholly abandoned the 

 Rescue, and both crews made the Advance their perma- 

 nent winter home. The cold soon became intense ; the 

 mercury congealed, and the spirit thermometer indi- 

 cated 46 3 below zero. Its average range was 30 to 

 35. They had drifted helplessly up Wellington Chan- 

 nel almost to the latitude from whence Captain Penny 

 saw an open sea, supposed to be the great polar basin, 

 where there is a more genial clime than that which inter- 

 venes between the Arctic Circle and the 75th degree. 

 Here, when almost in sight of the open ocean, that 

 mighty polar tide, with its vast masses of ice, suddenly 



