REVIEW OF THE JOURNEY.
Affairs seem to have gone on well at the schooner. Radcliffe has given me his report, and it is satisfactory. McCormick has presented a full history of events since leaving me among the hummocks; but I refrain now from recording them until I have set down some of the leading incidents of my journey, while they are yet fresh in my mind. Besides, McCormick tells me that he is unable to repair the schooner that she may be ice-worthy; and, as I am unwilling to accept this conclusion without a further examination than I have yet been able to make, I postpone any further allusion to the matter. To confess the truth, the last days of the homeward journey used us all up pretty thoroughly; and, although the confined atmosphere of the cabin is oppressive to me after so long an exposure in the open air, yet the doctor (which is my doppelganger) warns me to keep to this lounge for a day or so. I am not, however, forbidden to write.
I have returned well satisfied that Kennedy Channel is navigable; and it remains only to be proven whether Smith Sound will open sufficiently to permit a passage through. With steam, I should have no doubt whatever of my ability to force it; with sails, of course, the effort is filled with greater uncertainty; and yet, I think, the chances are with me.
I am fully convinced that a route to the Pole,—a route, certainly, not wholly unobstructed by ice, yet free enough at least for steam navigation, is open every summer from Cape Frazer; and if I can pull through to that point, then I shall have accomplished the full measure of my desires. In truth, this is the real difficulty. My views of the whole matter will be set down here on the spot as opportunity offers from day to day. To-morrow, I hope to be sufficiently recovered from the fatigues of the journey to begin the discussion of my materials, and the projection of my chart.
And now, with a heart filled with thankfulness to that Great Being who suffereth not even a sparrow to fall to the ground without His notice, I have here the happiness to record that in these two months of perilous traveling, He has spared me and every member of my party from serious accident or permanent injury.
June 4th.
THE RETURN.
I have worked up some of my sights, and rudely sketched in the coast-line of my track-chart. It makes a respectable show for our summer's sledging. Since the middle of March, I have covered the entire ground gone over by Dr. Kane's various parties, except the coast of Washington Land, and have extended the former surveys considerably to the north and west. But the important additions which I have been enabled to make to the geographical knowledge of the region I regard as of secondary interest to the circumstance that my journey has shown the practicability of this route into the Polar Basin.
My return southward from the shores of the Polar Sea is not recorded in my field-diary. There is no record after we had turned our faces homeward. That water-soaked and generally dilapidated-looking book, which now lies open on the table before me, breaks off thus:—
"Halted in the lee of a huge ice-cliff, seeking shelter from a fierce storm that set upon us soon after we started south. We have made about ten miles, and have from forty to fifty yet to make before we reach Jensen. We have given the dogs the last of our food. It is snowing and blowing dreadfully."