372 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



pedition during the first summer. The party reached the headland of Smith's 

 Sound as early as the 6th of August, 1853, when further progress became 

 difficult on account of the great accumulation of ice. The vessel was, how- 

 ever, warped through the pack, and the Expedition finally gained the north- 

 ern face of Greenland, at a point never before reached. Here the ice froze 

 around the vessel, and compelled them to seek a winter asylum, in which 

 they experienced a degree of cold much below any previous registration. 

 Whisky froze in November, and for four months in the year the mercury 

 was solid daily. In the ensuing spring the search was commenced. Dr. 

 Kane heading a party hi March, along the north coast of Greenland, which 

 was followed until progress became arrested by a stupendous glacier. This 

 mass of ice rose in lofty grandeur to a height of 500 feet abutting into the sea. 

 It, undoubtedly, is the only obstacle to the insularity of Greenland, or in 

 other words, the only barrier between Greenland and the Atlantic. It is, 

 however, an effectual barrier to all future explorations. This glacier, in spite 

 of the difficulties of falling bergs, was followed out to sea, the party rafting 

 themselves across open water spaces upon masses of ice. In this way they 

 succeeded in traveling eighty miles along its base, and traced it into a new 

 northern land. 



The explorations of the Expedition, as described by Dr. Kane in a letter to 

 Mr. Peabody of London, "embraced the entire shores of Smith's Sound, and a 

 new channel expanding from its north eastern curve into an open Polar Sea. 

 This great watercourse embraced an area of 3,000 square miles entirely free 

 from ice. It washed a bold and mountainous coast, which has been charted 

 as high as latitude 82 30'. Smith's Sound terminates in an extensive bay, 

 which bears your name, and the coast of Greenland, after being followed 

 until it faces the north, was found cemented to the coast of America by a stu- 

 pendous glacier which checked our further progress toward the Atlantic." 



The land attached to Greenland by ice has been named " Washington," 

 and that to the north and west of the channel leading out of Smith's Sound, 

 "Grinnel." The second winter was one of great suffering scurvy attacked 

 the party, and at one time every man of the Expedition, except Dr. Kane 

 and Mr. Bonsell were laid up by this disease. To aggravate their misfortunes 

 there was a deficiency of fuel, and they were even obliged to adopt the habits 

 of the Esquimaux and live upon raw walrus flesh. As it was impossible to 

 disengage the ship from her ice-bound position, it was resolved to abandon 

 her, and on the 17th of May, 1855, the party commenced their journey to the 

 south in boats and sledges, and finally arrived on the 6th of August at the 

 North Danish settlements in Greenland, having traveled 1,300 miles. 



