290 DR. KANE'S FAMOUS ARCTIC VOYAGE 



ditions the nearest settlement being that of Annootok, with the 

 natives of which they kept in communication. 



As the winter advanced their condition daily grew worse, 

 scurvy bringing the most of them to the verge of the grave. In 

 December not more than three were capable of active work and to 

 add to their trouble the supply of fuel ran short, so much so that 

 it was necessary to resort to the outside oak sheathing of the vessel. 



On February 25, 1855, the sun once more rose above the long, 

 deep, gloomy night of an Arctic winter. Early in March they ob- 

 tained a supply of walrus meat, which probably saved the lives of 

 the whole party. A brief entry in Dr. Kane's journal, under the 

 date of April 22d, clearly indicates the wretched condition of these 

 brave men. Here it is : "I read our usual prayers ; and Dr. Hayes, 

 who feels sadly the loss of his foot, came aft and crawled upon deck 

 to sniff the daylight. He had not seen the sun for five months and 

 three weeks !" 



Dr. Kane now undertook a sledge journey to Etah, in order 

 to effect the purchase of a fresh supply of sledge dogs. Here he 

 was hospitably received. A visit to an Eskimo hut, ho\vever. is 

 not one of pleasure. Such an "amorphous mass of compounded 

 humanity" is nowhere else to be seen: men, women and children, 

 with little but their native dirt to cover them, crowded together in 

 a close, stifling cell, fifteen feet by six! As Kane failed to obtain 

 the dogs, he was forced to abandon the further exploration he had 

 meditated on in search of traces of the Franklin expedition. With- 

 out dogs this was impossible, and out of sixty-two only four were 

 left. Nothing remained but to prepare for their homeward journey, 

 and as they were hopeless of extricating the "Advance" from its 

 icy prison, it became necessary to make the effort in their boats. 



These were three in number ; but all were well worn by expos- 

 ure to ice and storm. Two were "cypress whale-boats," twenty-six 

 feet long, with seven feet beam, and three feet deep. These were 

 strengthened with oak bottom pieces, and a long "string piece" 



