514 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 



and plants, and birds, and birds' eggs, became niou 

 common. They spent a week to regain strength at so 

 productive a spot, which they designated as " Provi- 

 dence Halt." At the Crimson Cliffs they again got a 

 plentiful supply of birds. On the 21st of July they 

 reached Cape York, and made immediate preparations 

 for crossing Melville Bay, which was accomplished 

 with great labor and suffering. Once more they were 

 nearly starving, when a great seal came providentially 

 to their succor. Their feet were so swollen that they 

 were obliged to cut open their canvas boots. The most 

 unpleasant symptom was that they could not sleep. On 

 the 1st of August they sighted the Devil's Thumb. 

 Hence they fetched the Duck Islands, and, passing to 

 the south of Cape Shackleton, landed on terra firma. 

 Two or three days more, and they were under the 

 shadow of Karkamoot. 



"Just then a familiar sound came to us over the 

 water. We had often listened to the screeching of 

 the gulls, or the bark of the fox, and mistaken it for 

 the i Huk ' of the Esquimaux ; but this had about it an 

 inflection not to be mistaken, for it died away in the 

 familiar cadence of a 'halloo/ 



" ' Listen, Petersen ! Oars men ? What is it ? ? and 

 he listened quietly at first, and then, trembling, said, in 

 a half- whisper, ' Dannemarkers ! ' " 



It was the Upernavik oil-boat, and the next day they 

 were at Upernavik itself, after being eighty-four days 

 in the open air. They could not remain within the four 

 walls of a house without a distressing sense of suffo- 

 cation. 



From Dr. Kane's report to the Navy Department we 

 quote the summing up of the results of the expedition. 

 They embrace : 



