112 DR. KANE— ROYAL AWARDS. [May 26, 185G. 



" As one of these, you may imagine that it is with no small degree 

 of interest that I find myself now, in my official capacity, conveying 

 this award of the Society, to the officer who so strenuously endea- 

 voured to determine the fate of him, whom we all so deeply deplore. 



" These sympathies, however, have had no share in the decision 

 of the Council. Dr. Kane's merits alone, have won for him this testi- 

 mony of the Society ; and I trust that these reciprocal acts of good 

 feeling between nations and individuals may tend to bind in lasting 

 ties of amity these two great nations, whose sympathies have been 

 shown to be so closely identified." 



His Excellency the, American Minister, having received the Medal, 

 replied : — 



. " Mr. President,— On behalf of my fellow- citizen, Dr. Elisha Kent 

 Kane, I receive, with equal pride and pleasure, this testimonial, 

 awarded by your learned body, to his ability and services in that 

 branch of human knowledge, to which you are specially devoted. 



" His country also, even now engaged in expressing her high 

 sense of his deserts, will be gratified to learn that her judgment, 

 which might, possibly, be ascribed to partiality, has been thus 

 sanctioned. 



" Young as he yet is, and fairly entitled to count upon many years 

 of zealous intellectual activity, he can never achieve a prouder recog- 

 nition, considered in all its aspects, than this Medal of the Koyal 

 Geographical Society of London. 



" Dr. Kane, as is personally known to me, entered upon his career 

 of Arctic exploration under the influence of sentiments which were 

 strengthened, rather than shaken, by its depicted terrors. In the 

 medical department of the navy of the United States, on a remote 

 station, his Government scarcely intimated a disposition to join in 

 the search for Sir John Franklin, before he hurried forward to volun- 

 teer an enlistment for that noble purpose. There was a voice upon 

 the breeze that had caught his ear ; an ardent fondness for scientific 

 studies impelled him to a fresh field of research ; a daring and irre- 

 pressible spirit of enterprise co-operated with much experience and 

 peculiar attainments. He went — he went twice; and, though he 

 vainly offered his own life to rescue another's, he brought back with 

 him observations, verifications, discoveries, and delineations, worthy 

 to bo accepted by the masters of geographical science. If, as I 

 believe was the case, he penetrated to and actually beheld the ice- 

 encircled yet open sea, whose existence had been predicated of the 

 periodical northern flight of aquatic birds, of certain currents, and 

 of other indicia, he. may justly feel that the practical solution of an 

 interesting problem has earned the honour of your approbation. 



" I do not wish, Mr. President, to eulogise my countryman. You 

 are far more competent than myself to appreciate the exact value of 

 what he has eff'ected. Your Council have affixed to his record this 

 tljoir Great Seal ; and at your invitation, and with alacrity, I assume 

 the grateful task of transmitting it safely to his hands." 



