APPENDIX NO. II. 
300 
ism, general meteorology, and subjects of importance in connection 
with natural history. 
You will transmit to the Department, when opportunities offer, 
reports of your progress and the results of your search, and, on your 
return to the United States, a full and detailed narrative of the inci¬ 
dents and discoveries of your exploration by laud and sea, as matters 
of the scientific observations herein referred to. 
Repeating my best wishes for your success, I am, very respect¬ 
fully, &c. 
John P. Kennedy. 
Passed Assistant Surgeon E. K. Kane , 
United States Navy , New York. 
No. n. 
Preliminary Report of Passed Assistant Surgeon Kane to the 
Secretary of the Navy 
Hon. James C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy: 
Sir: —The expedition to which I was assigned by orders from the 
Department, under date the 27th of November, 1852, left New York 
in the brig Advance, one hundred and twenty tons burden, on the 
30th of May following. Our company consisted of eighteen persons 
in all; of whom ten were regularly attached to the naval service, the 
others being engaged by private liberality. 
Our destination was to the highest penetrable point of Baffin’s Bay, 
from which, according to instructions from the Department, we were 
to attempt a search for the missing vessels of Sir John Franklin. 
This region was then entirely unexplored, and it was selected on that 
account. 
The copies which I annex of my letters heretofore addressed to the 
Department indicate my course up to the time of leaving Upernavik, 
in latitude 72° 47' N. It will be seen from them that I engaged at 
that point an Esquimaux hunter and an interpreter, deeming their 
aid essential to the success of our expedition. I bad also purchased 
supplies of fresh meat and fish, which were carefully dried and set 
aside to meet emergencies. 
