Transcriber Note
Text emphasis is denoted by _Italics_ and =Bold=.
[Illustration: The Far North.--_Page 67._
(_Frontispiece._)]
THE FAR NORTH:
EXPLORATIONS IN
THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
BY
ELISHA KENT KANE, M.D.,
COMMANDER, SECOND "GRINNELL" EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM P. NIMMO & CO.
1879.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED BY M'FARLANE AND ERSKINE,
ST JAMES SQUARE.
PREFACE.
In May 1845, Sir John Franklin sailed from England with the ships
_Erebus_ and _Terror_, on an expedition to attempt the discovery of a
"North-West Passage," or water communication between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, to the North of the American Continent. No intelligence
was received from him after the year following.
Numerous expeditions were fitted out and despatched in search of Franklin
and his brave crew, both from this country and from America. In 1854, Dr
Rae returned with information that the Esquimaux had reported having seen
the bodies of "forty white men," near Great Fish River, in the spring of
1850. This intelligence was not considered trustworthy, and Lady Franklin
fitted out a private expedition, under the command of Captain M'Clintock,
who sailed from Aberdeen in the steam-yacht _Fox_, July 1857. He returned
in 1859 with indisputable proofs of the death of Franklin, and the fate
of the expedition under his command,--full details of which he afterwards
published.[A]
[A] A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his
Companions. By Captain F. L. M'Clintock, R.N., LL.D. 8vo 1859.
The present volume is an epitome of "Arctic Explorations,"[B] an official
account of the Second "Grinnell" Expedition in search of Sir John
Franklin,--the First Grinnell Expedition having been dispatched in 1850
under Lieutenant De Haven, with Dr Kane as surgeon. These expeditions
were fitted out at New York, at the expense of a wealthy and generous
merchant of that city, named Grinnell, and Mr Peabody, the eminent
American resident in London, whose munificence and liberality are now so
well known in this country. In the Second Expedition, the brig _Advance_
was placed under the command of Dr Elisha Kent Kane, assistant-surgeon,
U.S.N., a gentleman well qualified, from previous experience, to
undertake such an important duty.
[B] Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition In Search of Sir
John Franklin, 1853-55. By Elisha Kent Kane, M.D., U.S.N. 2 vols 8vo.
1856.
Dr Kane was born at Philadelphia in 1822, and was educated at the
Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1843 he accompanied the embassy
to China, and for some time travelled in the interior of India. He
also explored the Nile as far as the frontiers of Nubia, Returning to
America, he afterwards visited the slave-coasts of Africa. He served in
the U.S. army for a short period, and underwent many hardships during
the Mexican campaign. In 1853 he was appointed to the command of the
Arctic Expedition, a detailed narrative of which is contained in the
present volume. Dr Kane died at Havannah in 1857, at the early age of
thirty-five.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Chap. I. Organization--New York to the North Water, 9
Chap. II. The North Water to the Wintering Ground, 18
Chap. III. Our First Walk Out--The Depôt Party, 34
Chap. IV. Domestic Troubles--Return of the Depôt Party, 43
Chap. V. Our First Winter, 50
Chap. VI. An Anxious Search, 60
Chap. VII. The First Strange Faces--The Esquimaux, 74
Chap. VIII. A new Exploration--Return of Spring, 83
Chap. IX. Advent of the Second Year, 93
Chap. X. The North-East Party, 100
Chap. XI. Attempt to Reach Beechy Island, 113
Chap. XII. The Second Winter--Departure of half of the Crew, 124
Chap. XIII. Negotiations with the Esquimaux, 138
Chap. XIV. The Esquimaux Village--A Walrus Hunt, 150
Chap. XV. The Coming Winter, 157
Chap. XVI. Preparation for Leaving the Brig, 168
Chap. XVII. Farewell to the "Advance," 181
Chap. XVIII. The March and its Incidents, 191
Chap. XIX. Our March over Land and Sea, 205
Chap. XX. Starvation--Plenty--The Escape Welcome, 222
Chap. XXI. Conclusion, 227
[Illustration]
THE FAR NORTH.
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CHAPTER I.
ORGANIZATION--NEW YORK TO THE NORTH WATER.
In the month of December 1852, I had the honour of receiving
special orders from the Secretary of the Navy of the United States, to
"conduct an expedition to the Arctic Seas in search of Sir John Franklin."
I had been engaged, under Lieutenant De Haven, in the Grinnell
Expedition, which sailed from the United States in 1850 on the same
errand; and I had occupied myself for some months after our return in
maturing the scheme of a renewed effort to rescue the missing party,
or at least to resolve the mystery of its fate. Mr Grinnell, with a
liberality altogether characteristic, had placed the _Advance_, in which
I sailed before, at my disposal for the cruise; and Mr Peabody of London,
the generous representative of many American sympathies, had proffered
his aid largely toward her outfit. The Geographical Society of New York,
the Smithsonian Institution, the American Philosophical Society, and a
number of scientific association and friends of science besides, had
come forward to help me; and by their aid I managed to secure a better
outfit for purposes of observation than would otherwise have been
possible to a party so limited in numbers, and absorbed in other objects.
Ten of our little party belonged to the United States Navy, and were
attached to my command by orders from the Department; the others were
shipped by me for the cruise, and at salaries entirely disproportioned
to their services: all were volunteers. We did not sail under the rules
that govern our national ships; but we had our own regulations, well
considered and announced beforehand, and rigidly adhered to afterward
through all the vicissitudes of the expedition. These included--first,
absolute subordination to the officer in command, or his delegate;
second, abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, except when dispensed
by special order; third, the habitual disuse of profane language. We had
no other laws.
All hands counted, we were eighteen at the time of sailing. Another
joined us a few days afterward; so that the party under my command, as it
reached the coast of Greenland, consisted of--
Elisha Kent Kane, Commander.
Henry Brooks, First Officer. Isaac I. Hayes, M.D., Surgeon.
John Wall Wilson. August Sontag, Astronomer.
James M'Gary. Amos Bonsall.
George Riley. George Stephenson.
William Morton. George Whipple.
Christian Ohlsen. William Godfrey.
Henry Goodfellow. John Blake.
Jefferson Baker.
Peter Schubert.
Thomas Hickey.
Two of these, Brooks and Morton, had been my associates in the first
expedition; gallant and trustworthy men, both of them, as ever shared the
fortunes or claimed the gratitude of a commander.
The _Advance_ had been thoroughly tried in many encounters with the
Arctic ice. She was carefully inspected, and needed very little to
make her all a seaman could wish. She was a brig of one hundred and
forty-four tons, intended originally for carrying heavy castings from an
iron-foundry, but strengthened afterward with great skill and at large
expense. She was a good sailor, and easily managed. We had five boats;
one of them a metallic life-boat.
[Sidenote: Equipment]
Our equipment consisted of little else than a quantity of rough
boards, to serve for housing over the vessel in winter, some tents
of India-rubber and canvas, of the simplest description, and several
carefully-built sledges, some of them on a model furnished me by the
kindness of the British Admiralty, others of my own devising.
Our store of provisions was chosen with little regard to luxury. We took
with us some two thousand pounds of well-made pemmican,[C] a parcel of
Borden's meat-biscuit, some packages of an exsiccated potato, resembling
Edwards's, some pickled cabbage, and a liberal quantity of American dried
fruits and vegetables; besides these, we had the salt beef and pork of
the navy ration, hard biscuit, and flour. A very moderate supply of
liquors, with the ordinary _et ceteras_ of an Arctic cruiser, made up the
diet-list. I hoped to procure some fresh provisions in addition, before
reaching the upper coast of Greenland; and I carried some barrels of
malt, with a compact apparatus for brewing.
[C] _Pemmican_, cured meat, pulverized, mixed with fat and packed in
hermetically sealed cases.
We had a moderate wardrobe of woollens, a full supply of knives,
needles, and other articles for barter, a large, well-chosen library, and
a valuable set of instruments for scientific observations.
We left 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, cast our brig off from the steam-tug and put to sea.
It took us eighteen days to reach St John's, Newfoundland. The Governor,
Mr Hamilton, a brother of the Secretary of the Admiralty, received us
with a hearty English welcome; and all the officials, indeed all the
inhabitants, vied with each other in efforts to advance our views. I
purchased here a stock of fresh beef, which, after removing the bones
and tendons, we compressed into rolls by wrapping it closely with twine,
according to the nautical process of _marling_, and hung it up in the
rigging.
After two days we left this thriving and hospitable city; and, with a
noble team of Newfoundland dogs on board, the gift of Governor Hamilton,
headed our brig for the coast of Greenland.
We reached Baffin's Bay without incident. We took deep-sea-soundings as
we approached its axis, and found a reliable depth of nineteen hundred
fathoms: an interesting result, as it shows that the ridge, which is
known to extend between Ireland and Newfoundland in the bed of the
Atlantic, is depressed as it passes further to the north. A few days more
found us off the coast of Greenland, making our way toward Fiskernaes,
the harbour of which we entered on the 1st of July, amid the clamour of
its entire population, assembled on the rocks to greet us.
We found Mr Lassen, the superintending official of the Danish Company, a
hearty single-minded man, fond of his wife, his children, and his pipe.
The visit of our brig was, of course, an incident to be marked in the
simple annals of his colony; and, even before I had shown him my official
letter from the Court of Denmark, he had most hospitably proffered
everything for our accommodation. We became his guests, and interchanged
presents with him before our departure; this last transaction enabling
me to say, with confidence, that the inner fiords[D] produce noble
salmon-trout; and that the reindeer-tongue, a recognised delicacy in the
old and new Arctic continents, is justly appreciated at Fiskernaes.
[D] _Fiord_, an abrupt inlet of the sea.
[Sidenote: Hans Christian]
Feeling that our dogs would require fresh provisions, which could
hardly be spared from our supplies on shipboard, I availed myself of
Mr Lassen's influence to obtain an Esquimaux hunter for our party, he
recommended to me one Hans Christian, a boy of nineteen, as an expert
with the kayack and javelin; and after Hans had given me a touch of
his quality by spearing a bird on the wing, I engaged him. He was fat,
good-natured, and, except under the excitements of the hunt, very stolid
and unimpressible. He stipulated that, in addition to his very moderate
wages, I should leave a couple of barrels of bread and fifty-two pounds
of pork with his mother; and I became munificent in his eyes when I added
the gift of a rifle and a new kayack. We found him very useful; our dogs
required his services as a caterer, and our own table was more than once
dependent on his energies.
Bidding good-bye to the governor, whose hospitality we had shared
liberally, we put to sea on Saturday, the 10th, beating to the northward
and westward in the teeth of a gale.
From the time we left Fiskernaes, we had the usual delays from fogs and
adverse currents, and did not reach the neighbourhood of Wilcox Point,
which defines Melville Bay, until the 27th of July.
On the 16th we passed the promontory of Swarte-huk, and were welcomed the
next day at Proven by my old friend Christiansen, the superintendent, and
found his family much as I left them three years before. Frederick, his
son, had married a native woman, and added a summer tent, a half-breed
boy, and a Danish rifle, to his stock of valuables. My former patient,
Anna, had united fortunes with a fat-faced Esquimaux, and was the mother
of a chubby little girl. Madame Christiansen, who counted all these and
so many others as her happy progeny, was hearty and warm-hearted as ever.
She led the household in sewing up my skins into various serviceable
garments; and I had the satisfaction, before I left, of completing my
stock of furs for our sledge parties.
Coasting along, we passed in succession the Esquimaux settlement of
Kingatok, the Kettle--a mountain-top, so named from the resemblances of
its profile--and finally Yotlik, the furthest point of colonisation;
beyond which, save the sparse headlands of the charts, the coast may be
regarded as unknown. Then, inclining more directly toward the north, we
ran close to the Baffin Islands, sighted the landmark which is known as
the Horse's Head, and passing the Duck Islands, bore away for Wilcox
Point.
[Sidenote: "The Bergy Hole"]
We stood lazily along the coast, with alternations of perfect calm and
off-shore breezes, generally from the south or east; but on the morning
of the 27th of July, as we neared the entrance of Melville Bay, a heavy
ice-fog settled around us. We could hardly see across the decks, and yet
were sensible of the action of currents carrying us we knew not where. By
the time the sun had scattered the mist, Wilcox Point was to the south
of us; and our little brig, now fairly in the bay, stood a fair chance
of drifting over toward Devil's Thumb, which then bore east of north.
The bergs which infest this region, and which have earned for it among
the whalers the title of the "Bergy Hole," showed themselves all around
us--we had come in among them in the fog.
It was a whole day's work, towing with both boats; but toward evening we
had succeeded in crawling off shore, and were doubly rewarded for our
labour with a wind. I had observed with surprise, while we were floating
near the coast, that the land-ice was already broken and decayed; and
I was aware, from what I had read, as well as what I had learned from
whalers and observed myself of the peculiarities of this navigation, that
the in-shore track was in consequence beset with difficulty and delays.
I made up my mind at once. I would stand to the westward until arrested
by the pack,[E] and endeavour to _double_ Melville Bay by an outside
passage. A chronicle of this transit, condensed from my log-book, will
interest the reader:--
[E] _Pack_, a large area of broken floating ice.
"_July 28._--Born up to the northward and eastward, heading for Cape York
in tolerably free water.
"_July 29._--Entered broken ice, intending to work to the northward and
eastward, above or about Sabine Islands, in search of the north eastern
land-ice. The breeze freshened off-shore, breaking up and sending out the
floes, the leads[F] rapidly closing. Fearing a besetment, I determined
to fasten to an iceberg; and after eight hours of very heavy labour,
warping, planting ice-anchors succeeded in effecting it.
[F] _Lead_, a navigable opening in the ice.
"We had hardly a breathing spell, before we were startled by a set of
loud, crackling sounds above us; and small fragments of ice, not larger
than a walnut, began to dot the water like the first drops of a summer
shower. The indications were too plain; we had barely time to cast off,
before the face of the berg fell in ruins, crashing like artillery.
"Our position, in the mean time, had been critical, a gale blowing off
the shore, and the floes closing and scudding rapidly. We lost some three
hundred and sixty fathoms of whale-line, which were caught in the floes,
and had to be cut away to release us from the drift. It was a hard night
for boat-work, particularly with those of the party who were taking their
first lessons in floe[G] navigation.
[G] _Floe_, a portion of ice detached from the main body.
"_July 30._--Again moored alongside of an iceberg. Holding on for clearer
weather. Two lively bears seen about 2 A.M. The 'Red Boat,' with
Petersen and Hayes, got one; I took one of the quarter-boats, and shot
the other.
"_August 1._--Beset thoroughly with drifting ice, small rotten
floe-pieces. But for our berg, we would now be carried to the south; as
it is, we drift with it to the north and east.
"About 10 P.M. the immediate danger was past; and, espying a
lead to the north-east, we got under weigh, and pushed over in spite of
the drifting trash. The men worked with a will, and we bored through the
floes in excellent style."
On our road we were favoured with a gorgeous spectacle, which hardly any
excitement of peril could have made us overlook. The midnight sun came
out over the northern crest of the great berg, our late "fast friend,"
kindling variously-coloured fires on every part of its surface, and
making the ice around us one great resplendency of gem work, blazing
carbuncles, and rubies and molten gold.
Our brig went crunching through all this jewellery; and, after a tortuous
progress of five miles, arrested here and there by tongues which required
the saw and ice-chisels, fitted herself neatly between two floes. Here
she rested till toward morning, when the leads opened again, and I
was able, from the crow's-nest, to pick our way to a larger pool some
distance ahead. In this we beat backward and forward, like gold-fish
seeking an outlet from a glass jar, till the fog caught us again; and so
the day ended.
Everything now depended upon practical ice knowledge; and, as I was not
willing to trust any one else in selecting the leads for our course, I
spent the whole day with M'Gary at the mast-head.
[Sidenote: The North Water]
At midnight we were clear of the bay and its myriads of discouragements.
The North Water, our highway to Smith's Sound, was fairly ahead.
We succeeded, not without some laborious boring and serious risks of
entanglement among the broken ice-fields. But we managed, in every
instance, to combat this last form of difficulty by attaching our vessel
to large icebergs, which enabled us to hold our own, however swiftly
the surface floes were pressing by us to the south. Four days of this
scarcely varied yet exciting navigation brought us to the extended fields
of the pack, and a fortunate north-wester opened a passage for us through
them. We were now in the North Water.
[Illustration]
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