APPENDIX NO. II. 
317 
Up to the 26th of July our traverse of Melville Bay was along the 
margin of the land-ice, with only twice a resort to portage. We came 
then upon comparatively open drift extending to the southward and 
westward, which, after mature consideration, I determined to follow. 
There were arguments in favor of a different course, perhaps for the 
time less hazardous; but the state of health among my comrades 
admonished me that it was best to encounter the risks that were to 
expedite our release. The reduced hulk of our stores enabled us now 
to consolidate the party into two boats, breaking up the remaining one 
for fuel, of which we were in need. Our lengthened practice of 
alternating boat and sledge-management had given us something of 
assurance in this mode of travel, and wo were, besides, familiarized 
with privation. It was a time of renewed suffering; but, in the 
result, we reached the north coast of Greenland, near Horse's Head, 
on the 3d of August, and, following thence the inside passage, arrived 
on the 6th at Upernavik, eighty-three days after leaving the Advance. 
We did not intermit our observations by sextant and artificial horizon 
as we came down the bay, and succeeded in adding to our meteoro¬ 
logical and magnetic registers. These, including a re-survey of the 
coast as laid down in the Admiralty charts, will be included in a 
special report to the Department. 
We were welcomed at the Danish settlements with characteristic 
hospitality. The chief trader, Knud Gelmcyden Fleischer, advanced 
to us from the stores of the Royal Greenland Trading Company at 
Upernavik whatever our necessities required; and when we afterward 
reached Godhavn, the seat of the royal inspectorate, Mr. Olrik, the 
inspector, lavished the kindest attentions upon our party. 
We had taken passage at Upernavik in the Danish brig Marianne, 
then upon her annual visit to the Greenland colonies, Captain Amand- 
sen, her very courteous and liberal commander, having engaged to land 
us at the Shetland Isles on his return route to Copenhagen. But, 
touching for a few days at Disco, we were met by the vessels which had 
been sent after us, under the command of Lieutenant Hartstene. I 
have no words to express the gratitude of all our party toward that 
noble-spirited officer and his associates, and toward our countrymen 
at home who had devised and given effect to the expedition for our 
rescue. 
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your most obedient 
servant, • 
E. K. Kane. 
