FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 357 



calico they transformed themselves into female charac- 

 ters, as occasion required. These dramas were acted 

 upon the deck of the Advance, sometimes while the ther- 

 mometer indicated 30 below zero ; and actors and audi- 

 ence highly enjoyed the fun. They also went out in par- 

 ties during that long night, fully armed, to hunt the polar 

 bear, the grim monarch of the frozen north, on which 

 occasions they often encountered perilous adventures. 

 They played at foot-ball, and exercised themselves in 

 drawing sledges heavily laden with provisions. Five 

 hours of each twenty-four they thus exercised in the 

 open air, and once a week each man washed his whole 

 body in cold snow-water. Serious sickness was conse- 

 quently avoided ; and the scurvy, which attacked them, 

 soon yielded to remedies. 



Often, during that fearful night, they expected the 

 disaster of having their vessels crushed. All through 

 November and December, before the ice became fast, 

 they slept in their clothes, with knapsacks on their 

 backs, and sledges upon the ice, laden with stores, not 

 knowing at what moment the vessels might be demol- 

 ished, and themselves forced to leave them, and make 

 their way toward land. On the 8th of December, and 

 the 23d of January, they actually lowered their boats 

 and stood upon the ice, for the crushing masses were 

 making the timbers of the gallant vessel creak, and its 

 decks to rise in the centre. They were then ninety 

 miles from land, and hope hardly whispered an encour- 

 aging idea of life being sustained. On the latter occa- 

 sion, when officers and crew stood upon the ice, with the 

 ropes of their provision-sledges in their hands, a terrible 

 snow-drift came from the north-east, and intense dark- 

 ness shrouded them. Had the vessel then been crushed, 

 all must have perished. 



A strange picture might have been seen on Christmas 



