Jan. 14, 1856.] KANE. 17 



3. Dr. E. Kane's Report to the Secretary of the United States Navy 

 on his search for Sir John Franklin during the years 1852-3-4, 

 accompanied by a Chart, showing the Discoveries made during the 

 course of that Expedition. 



Communicated by the Admiralty. 

 Dr. Kane left New York on May 30, 1850, in the brig 'Advance/ 

 of 120 tons burden. His company amounted to 18 persons, 10 of whom 

 belonged to the United States navy, and his destination was the highest 

 point attainable through the northward of Baffin Bay in search of Frank- 

 lin. He reached Cape York ten days after meeting the ice, and passed 

 on August 7 the headland of Smith Sound, and the highest point 

 attained by Capt. Inglefield, r.n., in 1852. Open water lay before him, 

 but a belt of heavy stream ice was soon reached, which was followed by 

 a drifting pack that obstructed the channel. He attempted to push 

 through the pack to the northward, but at lat. 78° 45' the drifting ice 

 drove him on the Greenland Coast, where he was detained in Refuge 

 Inlet for three days. By a great effort, and taking advantage of openings 

 caused by the tides, he forced a passage to lat. 78° 43', which was reached 

 on August 29. On the same day Dr. Kane left the ship in charge of 

 Mr. Olsen, and started with boat and sledge to select a spot for wintering. 

 The boat and sledge were successively abandoned, but the work was 

 done. From a cape at an elevation of 1100 feet, a black ridge, subse- 

 quently found to be a glacier, was seen terminating the view along the 

 Greenland coast to the eastward. Icebergs crowded the channel, and 

 a frozen sea extended to the range of vision. Winter quarters were 

 selected at Van Rensselaer Harbour near a group of rocky islets in the 

 south-eastern curve of a bay, where the brig was frozen in on Sep- 

 tember 10. Parties were organized for establishing provision depots to 

 facilitate researches in the spring, and more than 800 miles were 

 traversed. The Greenland coast was traced for 125 miles to the north 

 and east, and the largest of the three depots along the coast was formed 

 on an island in lat. 79° 12' 6", and long. 65° 25'. Darkness arrested 

 these proceedings on November 20, and the sun continued 120 days 

 below the horizon. 



An observatory was erected adjacent to the ship, and a thermal 

 register was kept hourly. The mean annual temperature at this spot 

 appears to be 2° lower than that of Melville Island, according to Parry. 

 The lowest temperature was observed in February, when the mean of 

 eight instruments gave 70° — Fahrenheit. Chloroform froze, essential 

 oils became ^partly solid and liquid, and on February 24 chloric ether 

 was congealed for the first time by natural temperature. For astro- 

 nomical observations, a transit and theodolite were mounted on stone 



