ELISHA KENT KANE. 125 



eoup, to which we added a carefully-measured allowance of six 

 ounces of- bread. 



"On the 21st we reached Cape York, and, finding no natives, 

 made immediate preparations for crossing Melville Bay. An 

 extended view showed the land-ice nearly unbroken, and a 

 large drift of pack to the southward and westward. A beacon- 

 cairn was built, and strips of red flannel fastened to a flagstaff 

 so placed as to attract the attention of whalers or searching- 

 parties. I deposited here a notice of our future intentions, 

 a list of our provisions on hand, and a short summary of the 

 discoveries of the cruise. 



tf Up to the 26th of July our traverse of Melville Bay was 

 along the margin of the land-ice, with only twice a resort to 

 portage. We came then upon comparatively open drift ex- 

 tending to the southward and westward, which, after mature 

 consideration, I determined to follow. There were arguments 

 in favor of a different course, perhaps for the time less hazard- 

 ous ; but the state of health among my comrades admonished 

 me that it was best to encounter the risks that were to expedite 

 our release. The reduced bulk of our stores enabled us now to 

 consolidate the party into two boats, breaking up the remain- 

 ing one for fuel, of which we were in need. Our lengthened 

 practice of alternating boat and sledge management had given 

 us something of assurance in this mode of travel, and we were, 

 besides, familiarized with privation. It was a time of re- 

 newed suffering; but, in the result, we reached the north 

 coast of Greenland, near Horse's Head, on the 3d of August, 

 and, following thence the inside passage, arrived on the 6th 

 at Upernavik, eighty-three days after leaving the Advance. 

 "We did not intermit our observations by sextant and artificial 

 horizon as we came down the bay, and succeeded in adding 

 to our meteorological and magnetic registers. These, in- 

 cluding a re-survey of the coast as laid down in the Adrni- 



11* 



