KANE'S EXPEDITION (1854) 19 



and short breath ; and, in spite of all my efforts to keep 

 up an example of sound bearing, I fainted twice on the 

 snow. 



" We had been nearly eighteen hours out without 

 water or food, when a new hope cheered us. I think it 

 was Hans, our Esquimaux hunter, who thought he saw 

 a broad sledge-track. The drift Lad nearly effaced it, 

 and we were some of us doubtful at first whether it was 

 not one of those accidental rifts which the gales make 

 in the surface-snow. But, as we traced on to the deep 

 snow among the hummocks, we were led to footsteps ; 

 and, following these with religious care, we at last came 

 in sight of a small American Hag fluttering from a 

 hummock, and lower down a little Masonic banner 

 hanging from a tent-pole hardly above the drift. It 

 was the camp of our disabled comrades : we reached 

 it after an unbroken march of twenty-one hours. The 

 little tent was nearly covered. I was not among the 

 first to come up ; but, when I reached the tent-curtain, 

 the men were standing in silent file on each side of it. 

 With more kindness and delicacy of feeling than is often 

 supposed to belong to sailors, but which is almost 

 characteristic, they intimated their wish that I should 

 go in alone. As I crawled in, and, coming upon the 

 darkness, heard before me the burst of welcome gladness 

 that came from the four poor fellows stretched on their 

 backs, and then for the first time the cheer outside, my 

 weakness and my gratitude together almost overcame 

 me. ' They had expected me : they were sure I would 

 come ! ' 



" We were now fifteen souls ; the thermometer 75° 

 below the freezing-point ; and our sole accommodation a 

 tent barely able to contain eight persons : more than 

 half our party were obliged to keep from freezing by 

 walking outside while the others slept. We could not 



