The far North : explorations in the Arctic regions / by Elisha Kent Kane.

  • Kane, Elisha Kent, 1820-1857.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The far North : explorations in the Arctic regions / by Elisha Kent Kane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It was by great good fortune tliat no lives were lost. Stephenson was caught as he sank by one of the sledge- runners, and Morton, while in the very act of drifting under the ice, was seized by the hair of the head by Mr Bonsai] and saved. We were now close ujjon Life-boat Cove, where nearly two years before we had made provision for just such a contingency as that which was now before us. Buried under the frozen soil, our stores had escaped even the keen scrutiny of our savage allies, and we now turned to thena as essential to our relief. Mr M'Gary was sent to the cache, with orders to bring everything except the salt beef. This had been so long a poison to us that, tainted as we ■were by scurvy, I was afraid to bring it among those who might be tempted to indulge in it. On the 12 th the boats and sledges came to a halt in the narrow passage between the islands opposite Cape Misery, the scene of our late snow storm. All our cargo had been gatliered together at this spot, and the rocks were covered with our stores. Out of the fourteen hundred pounds not an ounce had been sacrificed. Everything was cased in its ■waterproof covering, and as dry and perfect as ■when it had left the brig. I was with the advance boat, trying to force a way through the channel, when the report came to me from Dr Hayes that Ohlsen was no more. He had shown, a short half hour before, some signs of revival, and Petersen had gone out to kill a few birds, in the hope of possibly sustain- ing him by a concentrated soup. But it was in vain: the poor fellow flushed up only to die a few minutes after. We had no time to mourn the loss of our comrade, a tried and courageous man, who met his death in the gallant discharge of duty. It cast a gloom over the whole party;