ELISHA KENT KANE. 101 



and other conveniences ; and he also gave them 

 (what they did not deserve) a written assurance that, 

 should they be driven back "by their trials and 

 dangers, they would receive a hearty welcome. They 

 started forth from the brig on the 28th ; but long 

 before the remaining members of the expedition 

 concluded their labors, in the succeeding December, 

 they all returned again to the vessel. 



Those who remained began immediately to pre- 

 pare for the rigors of the approaching winter. By 

 the 21st of October the light of the sun no more 

 illumined with its feeble rays that frozen realm ; and 

 they resigned themselves to the cheerless darkness 

 of an Arctic night, and to the confined precincts of 

 their gloomy cabin. Thus November, December, 

 January, February gloomily wore away: Christmas 

 and New Year were celebrated a second time by 

 these gallant heroes, with the thermometer fifty 

 degrees below zero, with the best means which they 

 could command, which were indeed limited. 



Our limits prevent us from describing with any 

 minuteness many of the incidents which character- 

 ized, and sometimes enlivened or saddened, the 

 life of Dr. Kane, during the leaden progress of this 

 third and last winter which he was destined to spend 

 in the Arctic regions. An occasional excursion from 



the brig in search of food, a fight with a bear, an 



9* ' 



