484 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 



a perfect shelter from the outside ice ; and thus the lit- 

 tle brig was laid up in Van Rensselaer Harbor, near a 

 group of rocky islets, in the south-eastern curve of a 

 bay, where she was frozen in on September 10th. 



An observatory was erected adjacent to the ship, and 

 a thermal register was kept hourly. The mean annual 

 temperature at this spot appears to be two degrees 

 lower than that of Melville Island, according to Parry. 

 The lowest temperature was observed in February, when 

 the mean of eight instruments gave seventy degrees 

 Fahrenheit. Chloroform froze, essential oils became 

 partly solid and liquid, and, on February 24th, chloric 

 ether was congealed for the first time by natural tem- 

 perature. For astronomical observations, a transit and 

 theodolite were mounted on stone pedestals, cemented 

 by ice. The longitude was based on moon culminations, 

 corroborated by occultations of planets, and the solar 

 eclipse of May, 1855. The position of the observatory 

 was found to be in lat. 78 37', and long. 70 40' 6". 

 Magnetic observations, both absolute and relative, were 

 also kept up. 



An excursion was made ninety miles into the interior, 

 when its further progress was arrested by a glacier four 

 hundred feet high, and extending north and west as far 

 as the eye could reach. As to the sledging outfit, they 

 kept on reducing it, until at last they came to the Esqui- 

 maux ultimatum of simplicity raw meat and a fur 

 bag. For the time being, a man thus becomes a mere 

 animal, only with another animal's skin for a cover. 



Parties were organized for establishing provision 

 depdts to facilitate researches in the spring, and more 

 than eight hundred miles were traversed. The Green- 

 land coast was traced for one hundred and twenty-five 

 miles to the north and east, and the largest of the three 

 depots along the coast was formed on an island in lat 



