ELISHA KENT KANE. 81 



that Greenland was not a collection of islands con- 

 nected together by interior glaciers, as was gene- 

 rally supposed, but a great peninsula stretching 

 northward, whose formation was governed by the 

 same laws which moulded other peninsulas having 

 a southern inclination and direction ; and that upon 

 the remoter outskirts of that peninsula the traces of 

 the remains of the lost navigators were still most 

 probably to be found. 



Dr. Kane based these conclusions upon the follow- 

 ing satisfactory premises. The- alternating altitudes 

 of the mountain-ranges of Greenland through an 

 extent of eleven hundred miles proved that Green- 

 land must approach nearer to the Pole than any 

 other portion of the earth. This would enable the 

 explorer to travel on terra firma northward instead 

 of adventuring over the constant fields of frozen sea. 

 The fan-like abutment of land already known to 

 exist on the north face of Greenland would check 

 the ice in the progress of its southern drift ; thus 

 furnishing greater facilities for advancing toward 

 the Pole than was afforded by the Spitzbergen Sea, 

 as attempted by Parry. This route would also furn ish 

 some additional means of subsistence from animal 

 life, and some aid and co-operation from the Esqui- 

 maux, who dwelt along the coast as far north aa 



Whale Sound. 

 F 



