SUFFERING FROM EXTREME COLD. 



597 



which the storehouse had been built. Fragments of ice had 

 been tossed into every possible confusion, rearing up in fantastic 

 equilibrium, surging in long inclined planes, dipping into dark 

 valleys, and piling in contorted hills." A sledge-party was 

 sent out on the 19th to deposit a relief cargo of provisions; on 

 the 31st, three of its members returned, swollen, haggard, and 

 almost dumb. They had left four of their number in a tent, 

 disabled and frozen. Dr. Kane at once started with a rescue 

 of nine men, and, after an unbroken march of twenty-one 

 hours, came in sight of a small American flag floating upon a 

 hummock. They were received with an explosion of welcome. 

 The return with the sledge laden with the weight of eleven 

 hundred pounds was effected at the expense of tremendous 

 efforts of energy and endurance. 



While still nine miles from their half-way tent, they felt the 

 peculiar lethargic sensation of extreme cold, — symptoms which 

 Kane compares to the diffused paralysis of the electro-galvanic 

 shock. Bonsall and Morton asked permission to go to sleep, 

 at the same time denying that they were cold. Hans lay down 

 under a drift, and in a few moments was stiff. An immediate 

 halt was necessary. The tent was pitched, but no one had the 

 strength to light a fire. They could neither eat nor drink. 

 The whiskey froze at the men's feet. Kane gave orders to them 

 to take four' hours' rest and then follow him to the half-way 

 tent, where he would have ready a &re and some thawed pem- 

 mican. He then pushed on with William Godfrey. They were 

 both in a state of stupor, and kept themselves awake by a con- 

 tinued articulation of incoherent words. Kane describes these 

 hours as the most wretched he ever went through. On arriving 

 at the tent, they found that a bear had overturned it, tossing 

 the pemmican into the snow. They crawled into their reindeer 

 sleeping-bags and slept for three hours in a dreamy but intense 

 slumber. On awaking, they melted snow-water and cooked 

 some soup ; and on the arrival of the rest of the party they all 



