KANE AND HAYES. 



371 



in his resolution, or if his courage had failed him during the trials of that 

 dreadful winter? 



" February closes,*" says the heroic explorer ; " thank God for the lapse of 

 its twenty-eight days ! Should the thirty-one of the coming March not drag 

 us farther downward, we may hope for a successful close to this dreary drama. 

 By April 10 we should have seals ; and when they come, if we remain to wel- 

 come them, we can call ourselves saved. But a fair review of our prospects 

 tells me that I must look the lion in the face. The scurvy is steadily gaining 

 on us. I do my best to sustain the more desperate cases, but as fast as I par^ 

 tially build up one, another is stricken down. Of the six workers of our party, 

 as I counted them a month ago, two are unable to do out-door work, and the 

 remaining four divide the duty of the ship among them. Hans musters his re- 

 maining energies to conduct the hunt. Petersen is his disheartened, moping 

 assistant. The other two, Bonsall and myself, have all the daily offices of 

 household and hospital. We chop five large sacks of ice, cut six fathoms of 

 eight-inch hawser into junks of a foot each, serve out the meat when we have 

 it, hack at the molasses, and hew out with crowbar and axe the pork and dried 

 apples ; pass up the foul slop and cleansings of our dormitory, and, in a word, 

 cook, seidlio?iize, and attend the sick. Added to this, for five nights running 

 I have kept watch from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., catching such naps as I could in the 

 day without changing my clothes, but carefully waking every hour to note 

 thermometers." 



With March came an increase of sufferings. Every man on board was 

 tainted with scurvy, and there were seldom more than three who could assist 

 in caring for the rest. The greater number were in their bunks, absolutely un- 

 able to stir. Had Kane's health given way, the whole party, deprived of its 

 leading spirit, must inevitably have perished. 



To abandon the ship was now an absolute necessity, for a third winter in 

 Rensselaer Bay would have been certain death to all; but before the boats 

 could be transported to the open water, many preparations had to be made, 

 and most of the party were still too weak to move. The interval was employed 

 by Kane in an excursion with his faithful Esquimaux to the Great Glacier. 



At length on May 20, 1855, the entire ship's company bade farewell to the 

 "Advance," and set out slowly on their homeward journey. It was in the soft, 

 subdued light of a Sunday evening, June 1 7, that after hauling their boats with 

 much hard labor through the hummocks, they stood beside the open sea-way. 

 But fifty-six days had still to pass before they could reach the port of Uper- 

 navik. Neither storms nor drift-ice rendered this long boat-journey danger- 

 ous, but they had to contend with famine, when they at length reached the 

 open bay, and found themselves in the full line of the great ice-drift to the At- 

 lantic, in boats so unseaworthy as to require constant bailing to keep them 

 afloat. Their strength had decreased to an alarming degree ; they breathed 

 heavily ; their feet were so swollen that they were obliged to cut open their 

 canvas boots ; they were utterly unable to sleep, and the rowing and bailing be- 

 came hourly more difficult. 



It was at this crisis of their fortunes that they saw a large seal floating — as 



