296 DR. KANE'S FAMOUS ARCTIC VOYAGE 



given in his own words "here we first got our cloudy, vague idea 

 of what had passed in the big world during our absence. The 

 friction of its fierce rotation had not much disturbed this little out- 

 post of civilization; and we thought it a sort of blunder as Carlie 

 Mossyn told us that France and England were leagued with the 

 Mussulman against the Greek Church ! He was a good Lutheran, 

 this assistant cooper, and all news with him had a theological com- 

 plexion. . . 



"But 'Sir John Franklin?' There we were at home again. 

 Our own delusive little speciality rose uppermost. Franklin's party, 

 or traces of the dead which represented it, had been found nearly a 

 thousand miles to the south of where we had been searching for 

 them. . . . And so we 'out oars' again, and rowed into the 

 fogs. 



"Another sleeping-halt has passed, and we have all washed 

 clean at the fresh-water basins, and furbished up our ragged furs 

 and woolens/ Kasarsoak, the snowy top of Sanderson Hope, shows 

 itself above the mists, and we hear the yelling of the dogs. Peter- 

 sen had been foreman of the settlement; and he calls my attention 

 with a sort of pride to the tolling of the workmen's bell. It is six 

 o'clock. We are nearing the end of our trials. Can it be a dream? 



"We hugged the land by the big harbor, turned the corner by 

 the old brew-house, and in the midst of a crowd of children hauled 

 our boats for the last time upon the rocks. 



"For eighty-four days we had lived in the open air. Ourl 

 habits were hard and weather worn. We could not remain within 

 the four walls of a house without a distressing sense of suffocation. 

 But we drank coffee that night before many a hospitable threshold, 

 and listened again and again to the hymn of welcome, which, sung 

 by many voices, greeted our deliverance." 



Dr. Kane and his party remained at Upernavik until the 6th 

 of September, when they embarked on board the "Marianne" for 

 the Shetland Isles. But putting in at Godhavn, they caught sight 



