CHAPTER VL 



WINTER LIFE IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



THE American expedition with which Dr. Kane 

 was connected was destined to pass through a full 

 probation of all the extremes of Arctic life, during 

 the long, dark, dreary solitude of a Polar winter. It 

 would be impossible to convey to the reader a more 

 correct idea of the incidents which marked the ex- 

 perience of the subject of this memoir during the win- 

 ter of 1851 than by quoting an extract from the official 







narrative of the commander of the expedition, which 

 describes the scenes of which they both acted and 

 experienced a part, with that greater accuracy which 

 personal observation always gives over any state- 

 ment which may be elaborated by another differently 

 situated : 



"On the morning of the 13th Sept. 1850, the 

 wind having moderated sufficiently, we got under 

 way, and, working our way through some streams 

 of ice, arrived in a few hours at Griffith's Island, 

 under the lee of which we found our consort made 

 fast to the shore, where she had taken shelter in the 



