196 KANE, MODEL OF PEARY 



perate, for our strength failed us anew, and we began to lose our self-control. 

 We could not abstain any longer from eating snow ; our mouths swelled, and 

 some of us became speechless. Happily, the day was warmed by a clear 

 sunshine, and the thermometer rose to — 4° in the shade ; otherwise we must 

 have frozen. 



"Our halts multiplied, and we fell half-sleeping on the snow. I could 

 not prevent it. Strange to say, it refreshed us. I ventured upon the experi- 

 ment myself, making Riley wake me at the end of three minutes ; and I felt 

 so much benefited by it that I timed the men in the same way. They sat on 

 the runners of the sledge, fell asleep instantly, and were forced to wakefulness 

 when their three minutes were out. 



"By eight in the evening we emerged froip the floes. The sight of the 

 Pinnacly Berg revived us. Brandy, an invaluable resource in emergency, had 

 already been served out in table-spoonful doses. We now took a longer 

 rest, and a last but stouter dram, and reached the brig at one p. m., we believe, 

 without a halt. 



"I say wc believe; and here, perhaps, is the most decided proof of our 

 sufferings; we were quite delirious, and had ceased to entertain a sane appre- 

 hension of the circumstances about us. We moved on like men in a dream. 

 Our foot-marks, seen afterwards, showed that we had steered a bee-line for 

 the brig. It must have been by a sort of instinct, for it left no impress on the 

 memory. Bonsall was sent staggering ahead, and reached the brig, God 

 knows how, for he had fallen repeatedly at the track-lines; but he delivered, 

 with punctilious accuracy, the messages I had sent by him to Dr. Hayes. I 

 though myself the soundest of all; for I went through all the formula of 

 sanity, and can recall the muttering delirium of my comrades when we got 

 back into the cabin of our brig. Yet I have been told since of some speeches, 

 and some orders, too, of mine, which I should have remembered for their 

 absurdity, if my mind had retained its balance." 



Undaunted by such experiences as this Dr. Kane started in April on a 

 sledge expedition to the north, seeking, he says, "for an outlet to the mys- 

 terious channels beyond (Greenland)." He was so weak by that time that he 

 was at one time delirious for a week, and nearly died. Yet he achieved 

 several remarkable discoveries. One was "Tennyson's Monument," a soli- 

 tary column, or "minaret tower" of greenstone, the length of whose shaft 

 was four hundred and eighty feet. It rose on a pedestal, itself two hundred 

 and eighty feet high, as sharply finished as if it had been cast for the Place 



