32 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



" Had to put Mr. McGary and Riley under active treat- 

 ment for scurvy. Gums retracted, ankles swollen, and 

 bad lumbago. Mr. Wilson's case, a still worse one, has 

 been brought under. Morton's is a saddening one : I 

 cannot afford to lose him. He is not only one of my 

 most intelligent men, but he is daring, cool, and every- 

 way trustworthy. His tendon Achilles has been com- 

 pletely perforated, and the surface of the heel-bone 

 exposed. An operation in cold, darkness, and privation 

 would probably bring on locked-jaw. Brooks grows 

 discouraged : the poor fellow has scurvy in his stump, 

 and his leg is drawn up by the contraction of the flexors 

 at the knee-joint. This is the third case on board — the 

 fourth if I include my own — of contracted tendons.*" 



On the 7th of December, Bonsall and Petersen, two of 

 the party that left Kane on 28th August, returned to the 

 brig, and the remainder of the party arrived on the 12th. 

 They had gone through a terrible trial. When they 

 arrived at the brig, the thermometer was at —50° ; they 

 were covered with rime and snow, and were fainting 

 with hunger. They had journeyed 350 miles, and their 

 last run from the bay near Etah, some 70 miles in a 

 straight line, was through the hummocks at this appalling 

 temperature. For more than two months they had lived 

 on frozen seal and walrus-meat. 



Food for the whole party became more and more 

 scarce, and Dr. Kane determined to make a journey to 

 Etah in order to obtain assistance from the Esquimaux, 

 if possible. His views on sledging at this period are 

 interesting : " My plans for sledging, simple as I once 

 thought them, and simple certainly as compared with 

 those of the English parties, have completely changed. 

 Give me an 8 lb. reindeer-fur bag to sleep in, an 

 Esquimaux lamp with a lump of moss, a sheet-iron snow- 

 melter or a copper soup-pot, with a tin cylinder to slip 



