fortunately,
protected them from the hurricane.

They had come fully ten miles in the track of the convenient iceberg;
and, when the storm abated--which it did on the 22nd--the crew took the
_Advance_ in tow, but made little progress along the ice-belt. Doctor
Kane was too impatient to stay with the vessel, so, with a few
followers, he hurried on in front to survey the coast in a boat,
somewhat unpleasantly named the _Forlorn Hope_, which, however, they
soon abandoned for a sleigh.

The journey in this conveyance was neither so easy nor so rapid as
perhaps may be expected, but some progress was made, though eight miles
a day does not come up to our European notions of sledge-travelling.
Finding the ice more and more difficult the sleigh was in its turn
quitted, and the party advanced on foot. In this manner, in not very
cold weather, they proceeded rapidly. They passed Cape Thackeray, which
they named, and reached Cape George Russell; whence they viewed the
great Humboldt Glacier, Cape Jackson, and Cape Barrow, all illustrious
titles in the archives of the world.

When Doctor Kane had made a search for a harbour, and found none so
convenient as the place he had left the _Advance_, he made his way back
again, satisfied that he had as good winter quarters as he could
reasonably expect to find. But he, perhaps, overlooked the fact that
had he discovered a convenient inlet in the ice fifty miles from the
ship, how was the _Advance_ to be brought into it over an ice-pack,
where a boat or a sleigh could not travel? So, perhaps, all things
considered, it was fortunate that he did not find a better shelter.

Doctor Kane and his men returned to the _Advance_, and had her warped in
between two islands for the winter, which was then rapidly approaching.
Soundings were taken in seven fathoms, and when all had been made snug,
the vessel was secured, laid-up in harbour--a shelter which she was
destined never to quit--at any rate, not as a "commissioned" ship.

Preparations were made for sleigh journeys. The dogs were trained,
sleighs were constructed, while an observatory was also erected. Some
of the party made excursions during the winter, and found their course
barred by an immense glacier four hundred feet high. Varied means were
resorted to to kill the usual monotony of the Arctic winter. A
newspaper was started, "hare and hounds" was practised, and perhaps
amateur plays were acted, beside the "Frozen Deep." They