Winterings in the Arctic Regions during the last fifty years. 353 



tions much fresh meat into the ship, which did much good to 

 the sick. But they had not only to suffer from scurvy; the cold 

 also could not be sufficiently kept off. The ship was lifted so 

 high upon the ice that it was impossible to heap the sides with 

 snow or to adopt other customary precautions. It contributed 

 not a little to heighten the difficulty of their position, that the 

 ' Rescue ' got into so bad a situation that she had to be aban- 

 doned for a time and her crew transferred to the ' Advance/ 



Notwithstanding his heavy medical duties, Kane did not neg- 

 lect to do whatever lay in his power for science. His report 

 contains very many important notices upon the formation and 

 movement of the arctic glaciers, with hints as to the deficiencies 

 which still remain to be filled up in this field, and upon the pe- 

 culiar ice-structures which occur here and there. 



He complains that the confined space and overloading of the 

 ship did not allow him to be so regularly active as he desired in 

 scientific matters. The observations of temperature are irregular, 

 but still very numerous ; and in connexion with them he calls 

 attention to various points, to precautions which must be em 

 ployed in order to obtain correct readings, and to many other 

 things. The northern lights found in him a zealous observer; 

 and here also it did not escape his acute mind how much still 

 remains to be explained in the theory of these phenomena. 



The second voyage*, which was commanded by Kane himself, 

 was fitted out by the two merchants, Grinnell of New York and 

 Peabody of London, and its object likewise was to search for Sir 

 John Franklin. The ( Advance * was again the abode of Kane 

 and his little crew, seventeen in number, to whom a native (Hans 

 Christian) was afterwards added. This vessel was a sailing brig 

 of 140 tons, and had proved on the previous voyage to be a good 

 ship for the ice. The equipment consisted of india-rubber 

 tents, sledges of the newest construction, and provisions consist- 

 ing of 2000 lbs. of pemmican, bread, flour, dried fruits, preserved 

 vegetables, &c, and besides these a considerable quantity of 

 salted meat, which had better have been left behind. As a scien- 

 tific equipment, there were on board a large library and a valu- 

 able stock of instruments. 



Kane selected Smith Sound for his base of operations, as he 

 had explained in a memoir read before the Geographical Society. 

 From this he proposed to push towards the north. That he 

 could find nothing there relating to Franklin's expedition ap- 

 peared clearly enough from the subsequent discoveries ; but he 

 penetrated far to the north, surveyed the shores of Smith Sound 



* Arctic Explorations. — The Second Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir 

 John Franklin, 1853, 1854, 1855, by Elisha Kent Kane. 2 vols. Philadel- 

 phia, 1856. 



