2 8o DR. KANE'S FAMOUS ARCTIC VOYAGE 



under the thwarts. The boat's crew consisted of Brooks, Bonsall, 

 McGary, Sonntag, Riley, Blake, and Morton. Each man had 

 buffalo-robes for his sleeping gear, carried a girdle full of woolen 

 socks to keep them dry by the warmth of the body, and slung a tin 

 cup and a sheath-knife to his belt. A soup-pot and lamp for the 

 mess, and a single extra day suit as common property, completed 

 the outfit. 



Such were the difficulties of the route, consisting of waterways, 

 gullies and hummocks, that it took them five days to advance forty 

 miles, at the end of which they were forced to abandon the sledge 

 and proceed on foot. Their journey led to an open bay, due, as he 

 found, to a rushing stream, about three-quarters of a mile wide, 

 flowing, as was afterwards observed, from a melting glacier. 



Here, in the heart of the dreary snowscape, the travelers met 

 with an Arctic flower-growth, of considerable variety of form and 

 color. The infiltration of the melted snows fed its roots, and the 

 reverberation of the sun's heat from the rocks fostered its delicate 

 life. Amid festuca and other tufted grasses, brightened the purple 

 lychnis and sparkled the white stem of the chickweed; together 

 with a graceful hesperis, reminding the wanderers of the fragrant 

 wallflower of our old English gardens. 



After fording the river, Dr. Kane climbed a lofty headland, the 

 view from which was most impressive. It extended beyond the 

 eightieth parallel of north latitude. Far off on the left lay the western 

 shore of the sound, receding towards the dim, misty north. To the 

 right a rolling country led on to a low, dusky, wall-like ridge, which 

 he afterwards recognized as the Great Humboldt Glacier; and still 

 beyond this, reaching northward from the north-northeast, lay the 

 land which now bears the honored name of Washington its most 

 projecting headland, Cape Andrew Jackson, bearing about fourteen 

 degrees from the farthest hill on the opposite side, Cape John Bar- 

 row. All between was one vast sheet of ice. Close along its shore, 

 almost looking down upon it from the crest of their lofty station, 



