“Passed Assistant Surgeon E. K. Kane,
“United States Navy, Philadelphia.”
The small brig Advance, one hundred and forty-tons’ burden, with seventeen picked men besides the commander, sailed from New York on the 30th of May, 1853, “escorted by several noble steamers; and, passing slowly on to the Narrows amid salutes and cheers of farewell.”
At the end of eighteen days the Advance had reached St. John’s, Newfoundland, where Governor Hamilton, a brother to the secretary of the British Admiralty, and other officials, combined with the inhabitants to welcome the expedition. Upon sailing once more, Dr. Kane was presented with a noble team of Newfoundland dogs, the gift of the governor.
The Advance reached Baffin Bay without incident, and a few days later found her off the coast of Greenland, making her way to Fisdernaes, which was reached the 1st of July,—“amid the clamor of its entire population, assembled on the rock to greet us.”
Here a native Eskimo, Hans Christiansen, was engaged as interpreter for the expedition. The Advance then proceeded across Melville Bay in the wake of vast icebergs, dodging to the rear of these huge floating masses, holding on to them when adverse winds became annoying, and pressing forward as opportunity offered. The promontory of Swartehuk was passed by the 16th. The following day the Advance anchored at Proven, where Dr. Kane was warmly welcomed by his old friend Christiansen, the superintendent. Here he made necessary purchases of furs, and these were speedily made into suitable garments by the superintendent’s wife and her assistants. While the brig sailed leisurely up the coast, Kane set out in the whale-boat to make purchases of dogs among the natives of the different settlements. After a two days’ stay at Upernavik, the Advance proceeded on her course and passed in succession the Eskimo settlement of Kingatok, the Kettle,—a mountain top so named from the resemblance of its profile, and finally Zottik, the farthest point of colonization.
THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION
Inclining more directly to the north, she sighted the landmark known as the Horse’s Head, and later Ducks Islands, and made for Wilcox Point, which was passed on the 27th of July. The 2d of August found them well in the ice and harassed by fogs, but the floes opened at intervals, allowing the ship to make her slow progress through them. The north water was comparatively free from obstructions, and by the 5th they had passed the “Crimson Cliffs” described by Sir John Ross; two days later they doubled Cape Alexander, and passed in to Smith Sound. At Littleton Island they stopped to deposit a boat and supply of stores. On August 8 the ship closed with the ice and bored her way through the loose stream ice some forty miles beyond Life Boat Cove, when it became impossible to force her way any farther, and, says Kane: “A dense fog gathering round us, we were carried helplessly to the eastward. We should have been forced upon the Greenland coast, but an eddy close in shore released us for a few moments from direct pressure, and we were fortunate enough to get out a whale-line to the rocks and warp into a protecting niche.”
The following day he writes: “It may be noted among our little miseries that we have more than fifty dogs on board, the majority of whom might rather be characterized as ‘ravening wolves.’ To feed this family upon whose strength our progress and success depend, is really a difficult matter. The absence of shore or land ice to the south in Baffin Bay has prevented our rifles from contributing any material aid to our commissariat. Our two bears lasted the cormorants but eight days; and to feed them upon the meagre allowance of two pounds of raw flesh every other day is an almost impossible necessity. Only yesterday they were ready to eat the caboose up, for I would not give them pemmican. Corn meal or beans, which Penney’s dogs fed on, they disdain to touch; and salt junk would kill them.