240 THE SEA. 



mined to hold a council of both officers and crew. At noon of August 26th all hands 

 were called, and the situation fully explained to them, the doctor, however, counselling 

 them to stay by the brig, although he gave them full permission to make any attempt 

 at escape they might deem feasible. Eight out of seventeen resolved to stand by the 

 vessel. Dr. Hayes and eight others determined to make an effort to reach the settle- 

 ments. Kane divided their remaining resources, and they left on the 28th. One of 

 them, George Riley, returned a few days afterwards, and, three and a half months later, 

 the rest were only too glad to rejoin the vessel, after enduring many sufferings. On 

 December 12th, says Kane, "Brooks awoke me with the cry of 'Esquimaux again!' 

 I dressed hastily, and groping my way over the pile of boxes that leads up from the 

 hold to the darkness above, made out a group of human figures, masked by the hooded 

 jumpers of the natives. They stopped at the gangway, and, as I was about to challenge, 

 one of them sprang forward and grasped my hand. It was Dr. Hayes. A few words, 

 dictated by suffering, certainly not by any anxiety as to his reception, and at his bidding 

 the whole party came upon deck. Poor fellows ! I could only grasp their hands, and 

 give them a brother's welcome." The thermometer stood at 50 (82 below freezing) ; 

 they were covered with rime and snow, and were fainting with hunger. It was neces- 

 sary to use caution in taking them in to the warm cabin, or it would have prostrated 

 them completely. " Poor fellows," says Kane, " as they threw open their Esquimaux 

 garments by the stove, how they relished the scanty luxuries which we had to offer 

 them ! The coffee and the meat biscuit soup, and the molasses and the wheat bread, 

 even the salt pork which our scurvy forbade the rest of us to touch how they 

 relished it all ! For more than two months they had lived on frozen seal and walrus 

 meat." They were all in danger of collapse, and had long to be nursed very carefully. 

 Dr. Hayes was much prostrated, and three of his frost-bitten toes had to suffer ampu- 

 tation. 



Their hope at starting was that they might reach Upernavik, the nearest Danish 

 settlement in Greenland, a distance of about one thousand miles, and that they might, 

 at all events next spring, send succour to the party left behind. Dr. Kane furnished 

 them with such necessaries as could be properly spared, with sledges : they were to take 

 a life-boat previously deposited near Lyttelton Island, and a whale-boat which had been 

 left at the Six-mile Ravine a spot so called from being that distance from the brig. 

 Before leaving Dr. Kane called them into the cabin, where in some nook or corner of the 

 aft locker the careful steward had stowed a couple of bottles of champagne, the existence 

 of which was only known to the commander and himself. One of these was drawn from 

 its hiding-place, and in broken-handled tea-cups they exchanged mutual pledges. 



Their hopes had been to reach open water at about ten miles from the brig, but in this 

 they were entirely disappointed, and they had to drag their boats, sledges, and provisions, over 

 ice so rough and broken, that in one place it took them three days to make six miles. Little 

 wonder if some of them thought of returning almost as soon as they started ! 



The reader would not thank us were we to record the long series of weary marches 

 over the ice which form the bulk of Dr. Hayes' narrative. Winter was fast approaching, 

 their provisions were nearly exhausted, and it behoved them to erect some place of 



