2IO MY ARCTIC JOURNAL 



ruin running in the path of the recent conflagration. The fire 

 had broken out two days after the departure of the " Kite " on 

 her last mission of good-will, and this was the first intimation 

 that any of us had had of the catastrophe. Shaping our course 

 southward, we arrived, after an uneventful voyage, at our port 

 of destination, Philadelphia, where on the 24th, amid a chorus 

 of cheers and hurrahs, and the tooting of innumerable horns 

 and whistles, we received the congratulations of the multitude 

 that had assembled to await our arrival. 



I returned in the best of health, much stronger than when 

 I left sixteen months before. The journey was a thoroughly 

 enjoyable one. There were some drawbacks, it is true, but 

 we meet with them everywhere, and were it not for the sad 

 loss of Mr. Verhoefif, I should not have a single regret. 



