In reviewing the events of this our first season of navigation, and considering what progress we had made towards the accomplishment of our main object, it was impossible, however trifling that progress might appear upon the chart, not to experience considerable satisfaction. Small as our actual advance had been towards Behring's Strait, the extent of coast newly discovered and minutely explored in pursuit of our object, in the course of the last eight weeks, amounted to more than two hundred leagues, nearly half of which belonged to the Continent of North America. This service, notwithstanding our constant exposure to the risks which intricate, shoal, and unknown channels, a sea loaded with ice, and a rapid tide concurred in presenting, had providentially been effected without injury to the ships, or suffering to the officers and men; and we had now once more met with tolerable security for the season. Above all, however, I derived the most sincere satisfaction from a conviction of having left no part of the coast from Repulse Bay eastward in a state of doubt as to its connexion with the continent. And as the mainland now in sight from the hills extended no farther to the eastward than about a N.N.E. bearing, we ventured to indulge a sanguine hope of our being very near the northeastern boundary of America, and that the early part of the next season would find us employing our best efforts in pushing along its northern shores. CHAPTER VI. Precautions for the Security of the Ships and their Stores--And for the Health and Comfort of the Crews.--Establishment of Theatrical Entertainments and Schools.--Erection of an Observatory and House on Shore.--State of Health at this Period.--Partial Disruption of the Ice in the Bay.--Anchors and Cables taken to the Shore.--Gradual Increase of Cold, Appearance of the Aurora Borealis on several Occasions, and various other Meteorological Phenomena to the Close of the Year 1821. Our operations at sea being now at an end for the season, my chief attention was directed to the security of the ships, and to the various internal arrangements which experience suggested as necessary for the preservation of cleanliness, health, and comfort during the winter, as well as for the economical expenditure of provisions, fuel, and other stores.