Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/129

 mend it, there seemed to be a fair chance of an abundant 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 winter, 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 scientific 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 simplified my cares.

Mr. Sonntag, with Radcliffe, Knorr, and Starr to assist 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