KANE'S EXPEDITION (1855) 35 



up the foul slop and cleausings of our dormitory ; and in 

 a word, cook, scuttionise, and attend the sick. Added to 

 this, for five nights running I have kept watch from 8 p.m. 

 to 4 a.m., catching cat-naps as I could in the day without 

 changing my clothes, but carefully waking every hour to 

 note thermometers." 



Such was the stuff of which Dr. Kane was made ! 



On the 6th of March, Kane made the desperate venture 

 of sending Hans, the only effective huntsman, on a sledge- 

 journey to find the Esquimaux of Etah. He took with 

 him the two surviving dogs in the lightest sledge. He 

 returned on the 10th, having made the journey success- 

 fully. He found that the plight of the Esquimaux, so 

 far as food was concerned, had been worse than those at 

 the brig. Hans, however, assisted in a walrus-hunt, and 

 with his rifle succeeded in killing a walrus. With his 

 share of the meat he returned to the brig, where he was 

 heartily welcomed. 



By the end of March, Kane was able to hope that the 

 scurvy was abating. In his journal on 3rd April, he gives 

 a description of the daily routine : — 



"At 7.30 call 'all hands'; which means that one of 

 the well trio wakes the other two. This order is obeyed 

 slowly. The commander confesses for himself that the 

 breakfast is well-nigh upon table before he gets his stiff 

 ankles to the floor. Looking around, he sees the usual 

 mosaic of sleepers as ingeniously dovetailed and crowded 

 together as the campers-out in a buffalo-bag. He winds 

 his way through them, and, as he does so, some stereotyped 

 remarks are interchanged. ' Thomas ! , — our ex-cook, 

 now side bv side with the first officer of the expedition, — 

 ' Thomas, turn out ! ' ' Eugh-ng, sir. 1 ' Turn out ; get 

 up/ ' Ys-sir ; ' (sits bolt upright and rubs his eyes.) 

 ' How (Tyou feel, Mr. Ohlsen ? ' ' Better, sir. 1 ' HowVe 

 you passed the night, Mr. Brooks ? ' ' Middlin 1 , sir.' 



