PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER 



583 



far below zero, to commit a few words to his journal, when he 

 heard De Haven's voice. "Doctor," he said, "the ice has 

 caught us : we are frozen up." 



The Advance was now destined to undergo treatment similar 

 to that suffered by the Terror under Captain Back. For eight 

 mortal months she was carried, cradled in the ice, backwards 

 and forwards in Wellington Channel, wherever the winds and 

 currents listed. At first, before the ice around them had 

 become solid, they were exposed to constant peril from "nips" 

 of floating and besieging floes ; but these huge tablets soon 

 became a protection by themselves receiving and warding off 

 subsequent attacks. Early in October, the vessels were more 

 firmly fixed than a jewel in its setting. 



They now made preparations for passing the winter. The 

 two crews were collected in the Advance. Until the stoves 

 could be got up, a lard-lamp was burned in the cabin, by which 

 the temperature was raised to 12° above zero. The condensed 

 moisture upon the beams from so many breaths caused them to 

 drip perpetually, till canvas gutters were fitted up, which carried 

 off a gallon of water a day. The three stoves were soon ready, 

 and these, together with the cooking-galley, diffused warmth 

 through the common room formed by knocking the forecastle 

 and cabin into one. Light was furnished by four argand and 

 three bear's-fat lamps. The entire deck of the Advance was 

 covered with a housing of thick felt. On the 9th of November 

 their preparations were fairly completed. 



The sun ceased to rise after the 15th of November: after 

 that, the east was as dark at nine in the morning as at mid- 

 night ; at eleven there was a faint twilight, and at noon a streak 

 of brown far away to the south. The store-room would have 

 furnished an amateur geologist with an admirable cabinet, so 

 totally were the eatables and drinkables changed in appearance 

 by the cold. "Dried apples and peaches assumed the appear- 

 ance of chalcedony ; sour-krout was mica, the laminae of which 



