ELISHA KENT KANE. 



began to woik its effect upon the health of the 

 crews. Several cases of scurvy appeared among 

 them, and, notwithstanding the indefatigable at- 

 tention and active treatment resorted to by the 

 medical officers, it could not be eradicated : its pro- 

 gress, however, was checked. 



"December 7th, at 8 A.M., the crack in which we 

 were had opened and formed a lane of water fifty- 

 six feet wide, communicating ahead at the distance 

 of sixty feet with ice of about one foot in thickness, 

 which had formed since the 3d. The vessel was 

 secured to the largest floe near us, (that on which 

 our spare stores were deposited.) At noon the ice 

 was again in motion, and began to close, affording 

 us the pleasant prospect of an inevitable nip between 

 two floes of the heaviest kind. In a short time the 

 prominent points took our side, on the starboard, 

 just about the main-rigging, and on the port under 

 the counter and at the fore-rigging ; thus bringing 

 three points of pressure in such a position that it 

 must have proved fatal to a larger or less strengthened 

 vessel. The Advance, however, stood it bravely. 

 After trembling and groaning in every joint, the ice 

 passed under and raised her about two and a half 

 feet. She was let down again for a moment, and 

 then her stern was raised about five feet. Her bows, 

 being unsupported, were depressed almost as much. 



