1915] WAITING FOR THE SHIP 165 



land so often mentioned by Kane! There lay Butler 

 Island, Fern Rock, the receding terraces, the group of 

 rocky islets! Along this shore the little brig Advance 

 was pulled and coaxed into her icy cradle to remain for 

 two long years and then finally abandoned. And along 

 this shore Doctor Kane, in retreat, had sledged the in- 

 valids south, followed by liis crew in the drag-ropes, 

 pulling their two boats toward the open water beyond 

 Etah. 



Running to the top of Observatory Island, I first 

 discovered the grave of Schubert and Baker — a mass of 

 rocks filling a natural crevice. How well I remembered 

 reading, years ago in the appendix of Doctor Kane's 

 book, "On the highest point of the island ... is a deep- 

 ly chiseled arrow-mark filled with lead." I looked down 

 at my feet and found myself almost standing on the 

 arrow! In the middle of the arrow was a deeply chiseled 

 hole. Consulting the narrative, I find: "Near this [the 

 grave] a hole was worked into the rock and a paper 

 inclosed in glass, sealed in with melted lead." Lead, 

 papery and glass were missing. Possibly they had been 

 taken by Bryant, of the Charles Francis Hall Expedi- 

 tion, who, when in winter quarters at Polaris Beach near 

 Life Boat Cove in 1872-73, visited Rensselaer Harbor. 



Everything was as described by Kane, even the "en- 

 larged crack five feet due west of above arrow." In 

 memory of America's first Arctic explorer, I inserted my 

 ice lance in the hole of the "deeply chiseled arrow-mark," 

 and to the top of it fastened the American flag intrusted 

 to my care by the Kane Masonic Lodge of New York 

 City. Sixty years had gone by since these cliffs, whit- 

 ened shores, and islets had looked upon the Stars and 

 Stripes. Sitting there on the summit of Fern Rock on 



