510 DR. KANE'fe EXPEDITION. 



sympathy is on our side/ 3 There were no star obser- 

 vations this winter; the" observatory had become the 

 mausoleum of the two of the party who had succumbed 

 after the excursion in the snow-drift. In the beginning 

 of March every man on board was tainted with scurvy ; 

 and often not more than three were able to make exer- 

 tion in behalf of the rest. On the 4th of the month 

 the last remnant of fresh meat was doled out, and the 

 invalids began to sink rapidly. Their lives were only 

 saved by the success of a forlorn-hope excursion of 

 Hans to the remote Esquimaux hunting-station Etah, 

 seventy-five miles away, whither he went in search of 

 walrus. 



On one occasion the adventurers killed a bear that 

 had come with its cub, pressed by extreme hunger, 

 close to the brig. It is painful to read the details of 

 the struggle, from the wonderful attachment shown by 

 the mother to its cub, and by the latter to its parent, to 

 whom it always clung, even in death. But the men's 

 lives were valuable ; and it was thought excusable to 

 kill two bears when the glaucous gulls were seen gob- 

 bling up young eider-ducks in the face of their dis- 

 tracted mothers by mouthfuls. Dr. Kane was the only 

 person who would eat rats. He attributes his compara- 

 tive immunity from scurvy to " rat-soup. n Among the 

 Arctic dainties which seem most to have excited his 

 gastronomic enthusiasm was frozen walrus-liver, eaten 

 raw. 



Having no fuel, they were now reduced to the Esqui 

 maux system of relying on lamps for heat ; beds and 

 bedding hence became black with soot, and their faces 

 were begrimed with fatty carbon. The journal is now 

 little more than a chronicle of privations and sufferings, 

 interspersed with extraordinary efforts to keep up com- 

 munications with the Esquimaux. It is, without compar- 



