288 FATE OF THE "ADVANCE." 



to deviate somewhat, in the small chart which accom- 

 panies this volume, from the chart of Dr. Kane. 



The coast along which I had been traveling was a 

 succession of well-remembered landmarks. The tall 

 sandstone cliffs were as familiar as the rows of lofty 

 warehouses and stores on Broadway. Both up and 

 down the coast I had gone so often from Van Rens- 

 selaer Harbor that I knew every point of land, and 

 gorge, and ravine as if I had seen them but yester- 

 day. But when I got down into the harbor itself 

 how changed was every thing ! Instead of the broad, 

 smooth ice over which I had so often strolled, there 

 was but a uniform wilderness of hummocks. In the 

 place where the Advance once lay, the ice was piled up 

 nearly as high as were her mast-heads. Fern Rock 

 was almost overridden by the frightful avalanche 

 which had torn down into the harbor from the north, 

 and the locality of the storehouse on Butler Island 

 was almost buried out of sight. No vestige of the 

 Advance remained, except a small bit of a deck-plank 

 which I picked up near the site of the old Observa- 

 tory. The fate of the vessel is of course a matter 

 only of conjecture. When the ice broke up — it may 

 have been the year we left her or years afterward — 

 she was probably carried out to sea and ultimately 

 crushed and sunk. From the Esquimaux I obtained 

 many contradictory statements. Indeed, with the 

 best intentions in the world, these Esquimaux have 

 great trouble in telling a straight story. Even Kalu- 

 tunah is not to be depended upon if there is the 

 ghost of a chance for invention. He had been to the 

 vessel, but at one time it was one year and then again 

 it was another ; he had carried off much wood, as 

 many other Esquimaux had done. Another Esqui- 



