ALARMING EXPERIENCES. 235 



aierves of the most experienced ice-man. All officers and men worked alike. Upon each 

 occasion of collision with the ice which formed our lee coast, efforts were made to cany out 

 lines, and some narrow escapes were incurred by the zeal of the parties leading them into 

 positions of danger. Mr. Bonsall avoided being crushed by leaping to a floating fragment ; 

 and no less than four of our men at one time were carried down by the drift, and could only 

 be recovered by a relief party after the gale had subsided. 



"As our brig, borne on by the ice, commenced her ascent of the berg, the suspense 

 was oppressive. The immense blocks piled against her, range upon range, pressing themselves 

 under Ler keel and throwing her over upon her side, till, urged by the successive accumu- 

 lations, she rose slowly, and as if with convulsive efforts, along the sloping wall. Still 

 there was no relaxation of the impelling force. Shock after shock, jarring her to her very 

 centre, she continued to mount steadily on her precarious cradle. But for the groaning of 

 her timbers and the heavy sough of the floes we might have heard a pin drop; and then 

 as she settled down into her old position, quietly taking her place among the broken rubbish, 

 there was a deep breathing silence, as though all were waiting for some signal before the 

 clamour of congratulation and comment should burst forth." After the storm had abated, 

 the crew went on the ice-beach and towed the vessel a considerable distance, being 1 harnessed 



' O 



up, as Kane says, "like mules on a canal." Shortly afterwards a council was called to 

 consider the feasibility of proceeding northward or returning southward to find a wintering 

 place, and the latter idea was the more favourably received. After some further discussion 

 it was resolved to cross the bay in which they now were to its northern headland, and thence 

 despatch sledging parties in quest of a suitable spot to "dock" the brig. On the way 

 across the vessel grounded and heeled over, throwing men out of their berths and setting 

 the cabin-deck on fire by upsetting the stove. She was surrounded with ice, which piled 

 up in immense heaps. These alarming experiences were repeated on several occasions. Dr. 

 Kane meantime took a whale-boat, well sheathed with tin, ahead of the brig, and after 

 about twenty-four hours came to a solid ice-shelf or table, clinging round the base of the 

 cliffs. They hauled up the boat and then prepared for a sledge journey. The rough and 

 difficult nature of their icy route may be inferred from the fact that it took them five days 

 to make a direct distance of forty miles, while they had travelled twice that distance 

 in reality. They then arrived at a bay into which a large river fell. This Kane considers 

 the largest stream of North Greenland ; its width at the mouth was three-fourths of a 

 mile. Its course was afterwards pursued to an interior glacier, from the base of which it 

 was found to issue in numerous streams. By the banks of this river they encamped, lulled 

 by the unusual music of running waters. " Here," says Kane, " protected from the frost 

 by the infiltration of the melted snows, and fostered by the reverberation of solar heat from 

 the rocks, we met a flower growth, which, though drearily Arctic in its type, was rich in 

 variety and colouring. Amid festuca and other tufted grasses twinkled the purple lychnis, 

 and the white star of the chickweed ; and, not without its pleasing associations, I recognised 

 a solitary hesperis the Arctic representative of the wallflowers of home." After a careful 

 examination of the bays and anchorages, Rensselaer Harbour, the spot where he had left 

 the Advance, was chosen for their winter quarters, and a storehouse and observatory were 

 erected ashore. 



