522 THE KANE RELIEF EXPEDITION. 



relief vessels forced a passage into the North Water 

 on the morning of the 13th of August. Passing in good 

 view of the coast from Cape York to Wolstenholme 

 Island, Hartstein, in the steamer, examined Cape Alex- 

 ander and Sutherland Island. Passing on to the most 

 north-western point in sight (Point Pelham), he noticed 

 a few stones heaped together, which, on examination, 

 gave assurance of Kane's having been there ; but no 

 clue was afforded. Pushing on to latitude 78 32' north, 

 the steamer was opposed by a solid, hummocky field of 

 very heavy ice, to which no limit was visible, inter- 

 spersed as it was with bergs, all drifting to the south- 

 ward. Taking now a retrograde course, they examined 

 Cape Hatherton and Littleton Island, and finally took 

 refuge under a projecting point, some fifteen miles north- 

 west of Cape Alexander. Here they were startled by 

 the hail of human voices. Going on shore, they found a 

 party of Esquimaux, and among them various articles 

 that must have belonged to Dr. Kane and his men. An 

 examination of the most intelligent of the natives led to 

 the understanding that Dr. Kane, having lost his vessel 

 somewhere to the north, had been at that spot, with his 

 interpreter (Carl Petersen), and seventeen others, in 

 two boats and a sled, and, after remaining ten days, had 

 gone south to Upernavik. 



After some more reconnoitring of the coast, Hart- 

 stein, in the Arctic, found himself firmly beset by the 

 ice, and thought, for a time, he was in winter quarters ; 

 but, after twenty-four hours' heavy battering, he got 

 out. After having made nearly the whole circuit, of the 

 northern part of Baffin's Bay, with the exception of a 

 deep ice-locked indentation between Capes Cowbermere 

 and Isabella, he returned, and, in company with the 

 Release, examined Possession Bay and Pond's Bay, 

 firing guns, burning blue-lights, and throwing up rock- 



