April 12, 1858.] RINK ON THE NORTH COAST OF GREENLAND. 
197 
and ledges upon its face. He sees crowds of waterfowl, and Hans 
observes some plants, but brings back no specimens, although they 
are named in scientific phraseology in Kane’s work. Dr. Rink 
joins issue on nearly every one of the data and theories based upon 
Morton’s journey. He considers it out of the question that a man, 
looking out from an elevation of 500 feet, could determine the 
absence of floating ice at a distance of 36 miles. He also throws 
great doubt upon the probability of Morton’s point of view being 
as high as he states it to be, for he believes that he identifies it 
with a hill whose measurement is very variously reckoned by Kane 
at pages 299, 305, and 307. He argues that the absence of drift 
ice tends to prove that the sea was permanently frozen to the north- 
ward, whence the wind was blowing strongly, and that the vast 
number of birds go to prove the smallness and not the greatness of 
the water at which they congregated ; and, finally, that there is 
nothing remarkable in the discovery of a sheet of open water, in 
midsummer, only 90 miles to northward of where a ship was sailing 
the preceding year. The picture in Dr. Kane’s work of the open 
sea, with Morton in the foreground, will not (says Dr. Rink) bear 
criticism. The sun is represented as half bathed in the water, 
although, at that season of the year and latitude, it must be far 
above the horizon. 
The President. — In returning thanks to Dr. Rink for this communication, 
I may remind you that the author is a distinguished Dane, who has spent nine 
years of his life in studying the natural phenomena of the great continent of 
Greenland. You have all doubtless admired, as much as I have, the work of 
that great American explorer, Dr. Kane ; and I am sure there is not one present 
who would not be as sorry as myself to derogate in any degree from his real 
merit, and from that glory which he really attained for himself by his most 
adventurous voyage. This is simply a critical essay respecting two points of 
Kane’s voyage, the first touching the formation and movement of glaciers, 
the other as respects the proceedings of Morton, the steward of Kane’s ship ; 
and as I see here present two eminent Polar voyagers, I know they are the 
persons best qualified to speak on this occasion. In the mean time Mr. 
Arrowsmith has defined on the map the position which he and others who 
have gone into the question assume to be the ultimate point which may he 
relied upon, as having been reached by any one of the persons who served under 
Dr. Kane. 
Rear-Admiral Sir George Back, Vice-President. — I think it is the 
fate of nearly all voyagers and travellers to undergo the ordeal of criticism from 
other travellers ; and, however interesting their accounts may be in other 
respects, yet, if their observations are not correct, I need not say that they de- 
teriorate in a geographical point of view from the value of their narratives. 
In making this observation, it will not be supposed for one moment that I 
cast the most distant reflection upon the memory of that gallant American, 
Dr, Kane. Nobody could have done better than he did. Few, if any, have 
undergone greater trials. I would observe that there is not the slightest 
idea of any concealment in his book. He states clearly the observations 
which he got from Morton, especially the meridional observations, which are 
