OUR WINTER HARBOR. 93 



mend it, there seemed to be a fair chance of an abun- 

 dant supply of game. 



From Dr. Kane's winter quarters we were not 

 very remote, the distance being about twenty miles in 

 latitude, and about eighty by the coast. We were 

 eight nautical miles in a northeasterly direction from 

 Cape Alexander, and lay deep within the recesses of a 

 craggy, cliff-lined bight of dark, reddish-brown sienitic 

 rock, which looked gloomy enough. This bight is 

 prolonged by three small islands which figure in my 

 journal as '' The Youngsters," and which bear on my 

 chart the names of Radcliffe, Knorr, and Starr. At 

 the head of the bight there is a series of terraced 

 beaches composed of loose shingle. 



The ice soon closed around us. 



My chief concern now was to prepare for the win- 

 ter, in such a manner as to insure safety to the 

 schooner and comfort to my party. While this was 

 being done I did not, however, lose sight of the scien- 

 tific labors ; but, for the time, these had to be made 

 subordinate to more serious concerns. There was 

 much to do, but my former experience greatly simpli- 

 fied my cares, 



Mr. Sonntag, with Radcliffe, Knorr, and Starr to as- 

 sist him, took general charge of such scientific work 

 as we found ourselves able to manage ; and Jensen, 

 with Hans and Peter, were detailed as an organized 

 hunting force. Mr. Dodge, with the body of the crew, 

 discharged the cargo, and, carrying it to the shore, 

 swung it with a derrick up on the lower terrace, which 

 was thirty feet above the tide, and there deposited it 

 in a store-house made of stones and roofed with our 

 old sails. This was a very laborious operation. The 

 beach was shallow, the bank sloping, and the ice not 



