602 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



were strengthened, housed, and mounted on sledges rigged with 

 shoulder-belts to drag by : one of them they expected to burn 

 for fuel on reaching water. The powder and shot, upon which 

 their lives depended, were distributed in canisters : Kane took 

 the percussion-caps into his own possession, as more precious 

 than gold. The 17th of May was fixed upon for the departure. 



The farewell to the brig was made with due solemnity. The 

 day was Sunday, and prayers and a chapter of the Bible were 

 read. Kane then stated in an address the necessities under 

 which the ship was abandoned and the dangers that still awaited 

 them. He believed, however, that the thirteen hundred miles 

 of ice and water which lay between them and North Greenland 

 could be traversed with safety for most and hope for all. A 

 brief memorial of the reasons compelling the desertion of the 

 vessel was fastened to a stanchion near the gangway, to serve 

 as their vindication in case'they were lost and the brig was ever 

 visited. The flags were hoisted and hauled down again, and 

 the men scrambled off over the ice to the boats, no one thinking 

 of the mockery of cheers. 



We have not space to detail the perils, adventures, and 

 narrow T escapes from starvation of this hardy party in their 

 romantically dangerous escape to the south. On the 16th of 

 June, the boats and sledges approached the open water. "We 

 see its deep-indigo horizon," writes Kane, "and hear its roar 

 against the icy beach. Its scent is in our nostrils and our 

 hearts." The boats, which were split with frost and warped by 

 sunshine, had to be calked and swelled before they were fit for 

 use. The embarkation was effected on the 19th : the Red Eric, 

 the smallest of the three boats, swamped the first day. They 

 spent their first night in an inlet in the ice. Sometimes they would 

 sail through creeks of water for many successive hours : then 

 would follow days of weary tracking through alternate ice and 

 water. During a violent storm, they dragged the boats upon a 

 narrow shelf of ice, and found themselves within a cave which 



