278 DR. KANE'S FAMOUS ARCTIC VOYAGE 



The second Grinnell expedition, which left New York two 

 years later, was under the command of Dr. Kane, also a native of 

 Philadelphia and a graduate of the Medical School of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania in the class of 1842. 



The Kane expedition sailed from New York on May 30, 1853, 

 in Mr. Grinnell's brig, the "Advance," one of those used by De 

 Haven, the total party consisting of eighteen officers and men. Dr. 

 Hayes, of later Arctic fame, was the surgeon, August Sonntag the 

 astronomer, and Henry Brooks the first officer. On the ist of July 

 they reached Fiskernass, a Danish settlement on the west coast of 

 Greenland, to take on board fifty dogs and an Eskimo driver. By 

 the end of July the little brig was among the floes in Melville Bay, 

 and with the wind blowing half a gale the intrepid voyager made 

 his vessel fast to a huge iceberg. As with its strange convoy the 

 ship approached Cape York, the great ice mountain began to crack 

 and shower down small fragments on the deck, the mariners cast 

 off, and no sooner had they done so than the whole face of the berg 

 gave way and a mighty crystal avalanche slid into the sea where the 

 vessel had been moored only a short time before. 



On the ist of August the ship was moored to another large 

 berg, "a moving breakwater of gigantic proportions/" and under 

 its floating lead they moved steadily to the north. Finally, the 

 danger from drifting ice being passed, they got under way, sailing 

 to the northwest through a fairly open channel, over a sea lit with 

 the glory of the midnight sun, the ice-fields glittering with jeweled 

 radiance and presenting the hues of blazing carbuncles, rubies, and 

 molten gold. 



As they faced northward, fresh meat for the dogs became 

 rlmost impossible to obtain. The famished animals eagerly de- 

 voured two birds' nests with the contents, and a dead whale provided 

 a series of luxurious banquets for the poor brutes. 



On Littleton Island Dr. Kane determined to establish his first 

 depot of stores, for use on the return voyage. The life-boat was 



