18 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



ments, would have unhesitatingly predicted a broken 

 head or a dislocated neck as the speedy and inevi- 

 table termination of his career. Of temper, too, he 

 was not by any means deficient, but h6 possessed 

 even more than an ordinary share of it ; although his 

 pugnacity was generally controlled by the superior 

 direction of his reason. When he did indulge his 

 combative propensities, it was usually in defence of 

 juvenile rights, in punishment of infantile wrongs, 

 and in vindication of injured and helpless innocence. 

 His daring and venturesome disposition often placed 

 him in positions of great peril ; and the future and 

 more historical dangers of the Arctic zone were not 

 unfrequently anticipated on the tops of lofty houses, 

 among the limbs of towering trees, in escaping 

 through trap-doors upon the roofs, and in climbing 

 to the summit of tall, smoking chimneys. What- 

 ever was most desperate and perilous within the 

 accomplishment of the most resolute of boys, that 

 possessed a peculiar and irresistible attraction for 

 the youthful adventurer. Yet even at an early age, 

 though rebellious against restraint both at home and 

 at school, he gave striking proofs of a penetrating 

 and vigorous intellect. His faculty of observation 

 was acute, sagacious, and comprehensive. There 

 was much intellectual substance closely packed in 

 his somewhat diminutive frame, like a mental coil 



