Early Geographers of the United States 403 



many an intrepid voyager to destruction, 

 finally reached a climax in the reported 

 loss of Sir John Franklin's expedition 

 to the polar seas in 1847. This event cast 

 a gloom over the British Isles and pro- 

 duced in this country the most profound 

 sympathy and a determination to use all 

 practical means to relieve the surviving 

 members of the expedition. For the 

 purpose of searching for the lost party, 

 Henry Grinnell, Esq., of New York, 

 offered to fit out two ships. The Gov- 

 ernment and Congress of the United 

 States gave the scheme their cordial sup- 

 port, assumed the responsibility of equip- 

 ping the vessels, and made the expedi- 

 tion national in character. Volunteers 

 from the U. S. Navy were called to man 

 the ships, and among the first to answer 

 were Lieutenant Edward J. De Haven 

 and Passed Midshipman Samuel P. 

 Griffin. The former was placed in com- 

 mand of the expedition in the Advance, 

 a brigantine of 144 tons, and the latter 

 became his assistant in command of the 

 brigantine Rescue. 



The chief object of the expedition 

 was the search for Sir John Franklin, 

 but De Haven was directed by the Sec- 

 retary of the Navy "to pay all due at- 

 tention to subjects of scientific inquiry. ' ' 



The Secretary of the Navy in his re- 

 port of November 29, 1851, said : 



1 ' The expedition under Lieutenant- 

 Commanding De Haven to the Arctic 

 seas in search of the British Commander 

 Sir John Franklin and his companions 

 returned to the port of New York in 

 October, having discovered only sup- 

 posed traces of the objects of which 

 it was in quest, and leaving in entire 

 uncertainty their actual fate. 

 Though failing in the main object of 

 the search, Lieutenant De Haven and 

 his officers verified by their explorations 

 many facts before unknown to science, 

 but indicated in the course of investiga- 

 tion carried on at the Naval Observa- 

 tory." From his data Grinnell Land 

 was added to our charts. 



The journal of Passed Assistant Sur- 

 geon E. K. Kane, U. S. N., the surgeon 

 of the expedition, is replete in notices 

 of natural features of the Arctic Zone 

 which have now become history, and 

 so well did he do his share of the scien- 

 tific investigations of the expedition, in 

 addition to his duty of caring for the 

 sick, that he was selected to command 

 the second search party. 



This second party of seventeen per- 

 sons in the same brigantine Advance, 

 which had been a home for some of 

 them in the De Haven Expedition, again 

 crossed the Arctic Circle, and for two 

 years and more made history for them- 

 selves and an honorable record for the 

 Navy. Time does not permit an account 

 of it more than to note that it was un- 

 successful in the main object of the 

 search, and was so overwhelmed by in- 

 surmountable difficulties as to require 

 another search party in its own behalf. 

 This was also a naval expedition, under 

 command of Captain Henry J. Hart- 

 stene, U.S. N. , comprising the purchased 

 bark Release and the steamer Arctic, with 

 forty officers and men for a crew. It 

 brought back to the United States fif- 

 teen members of the Kane party and 

 his vast store of geographical and scien- 

 tific data, which, but for the relief party, 

 might never have been found. 



In 1870 Charles Francis Hall was 

 directed to organize an Arctic polar 

 expedition under the supervision of the 

 Navy Department, and the U. S. ship 

 Polaris was selected as a home for the 

 force to be employed under his com- 

 mand. The expedition passed through 

 the waters between Greenland and Brit- 

 ish America as far as latitude 82 ° 16' 

 north, a point much nearer the North 

 Pole than had ever been attained up to 

 that period. More than 700 miles of 

 coast line were discovered or recharted, 

 and it then became known that Ken- 

 nedy's Channel opened into another 

 body of water, to which Hall gave the 

 name of Robeson Channel, in honor of 



