90 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



day and night. The first glimpses of returning 

 light were not seen until the 21st of January. The 

 period for active labors again approached. On the 

 19th of March, all the necessary preparations having 

 been completed, the first sledge-party was sent out 

 to prepare the way for future explorations. They 

 had been absent for some days, pursuing their 

 perilous journey northward, when suddenly Dr. 

 Kane, who remained in the vessel, was surprised by 

 the return of a portion of the party ; who, nearly 

 overcome by the intense cold, had left their com- 

 rades in a perilous condition forty miles distant from 

 the brig, lying almost frozen to death upon the ice, 

 There was not a moment to be lost. Dr. Kane 

 immediately went to work to collect the means of 

 immediate relief, and started out in search of the 

 wanderers with a party of nine men. The ther- 

 mometer stood at seventy-eight degrees below the 

 freezing-point. The prodigious intensity of the cold 

 overcame with trembling fits and with shortness of 

 breath the strongest and stoutest of the party. For 

 eighteen hours they travelled without water or food. 

 The least application of snow to the mouth instantly 

 produced a flow of blood, as if it had been touched 

 by caustic. After a continuous march of twenty- 

 one hours, the relief-party reached the tent of the 

 four absent men. They were found lying on their 



