190 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 



was all they wanted. 7 Presently Hans was found nearly 

 stiff under a drift ; and Thomas, bolt upright, had his 

 eyes closed, and could hardly articulate. At last, John 

 Blake threw himself on the snow, and refused to rise. 

 They did not complain of feeling cold ; but it was in 

 vain that I wrestled, boxed, ran, argued, jeered, or 

 reprimanded : an immediate halt could not be avoided. 



" We pitched our tent with much difficulty. Our 

 hands were too powerless to strike a fire : we were 

 obliged to do without water or food. Even the spirits 

 (whiskey) had frozen at the men's feet, under all the 

 coverings. We put Bonsall, Ohlsen, Thomas, and 

 Hans, with the other sick men, well inside the tent, -and 

 crowded in as many others as we could. Then, leaving 

 the party in charge of Mr. McGary, with orders to come 

 on after four hours' rest, I pushed ahead with William 

 Godfrey, who volunteered to be my companion. My 

 aim was to reach the half-way tent, and thaw some ice 

 and pemmican before the others arrived. 



" The floe was level ice, and the walking excellent. 

 I cannot tell how long it took us to make the nine miles ; 

 for we were in a strange sort of stupor, and had little 

 apprehension of time. It was probably about four 

 hours. We kept ourselves awake by imposing on each 

 other a continued articulation of words ; they must have 

 been incoherent enough. I recall these hours as among 

 the most wretched I have ever gone through : we were 

 neither of us in our right senses, and retained a very 

 confused recollection of what preceded our arrival at 

 the tent. We both of us, however, remember a bear, 

 who walked leisurely before us, and tore up as he went 

 a jumper that Mr. McGary had im providently thrown 

 off the day before. He tore it into shreds and rolled it 

 into a ball, but never offered to interfere with our prog- 

 ress. I remember this, and with it a confused senti- 



