180 
FAREWELL TO THE BRIG. 
enfeebled more or less every man in the expedition; 
and an anomalous spasmodic disorder, allied to tetanus, 
has cost us the life of two of our most prized comrades. 
“ I hope, speaking on the part of my companions and 
myself, that we have done all that we ought to do to 
prove our tenacity of purpose and devotion to the cause 
which we have undertaken. This attempt to escape 
by crossing the southern ice on sledges is regarded by 
me as an imperative duty,—the only means of saving 
ourselves and preserving the laboriously-earned results 
of the expedition. 
“ E. K. Kane, 
“ Com. Grinnell Expedition. 
“Advance, Rensselaer Bay, May 20, 1855.” 
We then went upon deck: the flags were hoisted 
and hauled down again, and our party walked once or 
twice around the brig, looking at her timbers and ex¬ 
changing comments upon the scars which reminded 
them of every stage of her dismantling. Our figure¬ 
head—the fair Augusta, the little blue girl with pink 
cheeks, who had lost her breast by 
an iceberg and her nose by a nip off 
Bedevilled Reach—was taken from 
our bows and placed aboard the 
“ Hope.” “ She is at any rate wood,” 
said the men, when I hesitated about 
giving them the additional burden; 
“ and if we cannot carry her far we 
can burn her.” 
OUR AUGUSTA. 
