New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-10-30
r,o ,Ngrle4N ARCTIC EXPEDITION.
med from Daily Tribune of Oct. 25.l
LETTER FROM Z. X. KANE.

and York. "Wednesday, Aug. 81
IN the 18th Of August steady breeze and
Loads helped as to an unlocked for progress.
VI cot TO the North of - 10, and the snow lay
.,o.a aboard of us, surmountng cliffs OF Trap.
Come deep valleys We passed were the nests OF
,or,orkable glaciers, and the ice generally inter-
ested me by the novel character OF its formations
had fine opportunity, too, oil adding to my
o.ook Of observations on refraction. have now
some forty quarto pages of them
trbyouchout these regions, the phenomena of
Refrsction eclipse anything have seen of Fata
Norcana or Mirage in Africa or Mexico Some
of these distortions were indeed so wonderful
that a1n inclined to thak we have been favored
IN this respect beyond previous voyaSers. Ger
tainly we have witnessed at least twice what no
descrip. n has yet approached. Parry, with
richer and Sabine, has sketched instances of
beros so doubled as to throw the base OF one high
;,,o the air. but we have had illusions SC extrava
rapty ianciiul that to attempt any description of
Them would be simply ridiculous.
Since we left Disco our day has been one I'M
ending sunshine; and midnight the time for
series of sundowns deepening in color with the
advance of the year. Bitter cold as We have had
it in earnest, strange to say, the warmcst sky OF
,be Mediterranean does not look warmer in its
coloring than that of the Summer evening upon
BafHns Bay have learned to believe in Turner,
in my delight with the rich purple shadows OF the
slanting sun here and the violet hues 1t gives to
the reaches Of white snow and the tranquil water
Leads that are like alcove looking glasses, uh-
Clouded by breath OF air.
1t is in these lingering hours that make the
wedding OF sunset to sunrise, the rctractlons are
so regularly beautiful. The earth borrows from
the skv its clouds and it's colors till it is hard to
tell where they do or not mingle And the line
where YOU look for the horizon fits up and down
socapriciously and it is so bestudded with glowing
figures some of them coming up from the water
and others down from the sky that you cannot
help puzzling yourself with the notion that your
little vessel has somehow or other got out OF her
place, and is either swinging or hanging be
tween them. l have seen in the course OF
single night, regularly castellated teudai towers,
glittorng pinnacles with pennons streaming from
Them, mountains crmsoned with lava tres
oriental domes Of golden tracery, and heaven
knows what all OF ideal architecture, mixed up
with bizarre forms of hieroglyph and heraldry
things that have been and are and things that
imagination has never dreant OF melting lnVo
each other like the phantasms OF dream One
evening tbe 18th we saw fleet OF ocean steam
ers in The air. with their tall smoke pipes, sailing
along in line, as if to marshal as our way
ESQUIAlAUX
Earlv in the morning of that day. as we passed
Cape York, two humanish looking beings made
signals to us. We scnS boat Oft and found
them to be a couple of Esquimaux These lar
Northern savages-for are now close upon 76'
N.-were expressive figures in the picture of this
lev wilderness They were clad in bearskin
breaches and seal skin hooded jackets their shoes
boI dog
fur a lance harpoon bone wood, and iron tipped,
in their hands, and big, inflated bladder OF seal
skin hanging back between their Shoulders They
were equipped for the seal chase upon the shore
ice. Their faces were lat and flabby, but with as
much OF patient good nature i'll them as we see IN
horses and dogs their pantomime was expressive
of the Coarsest fun that pantomme can express
They would have met us with open arms, but we
did not meet them half way. They pointed with
FIVE fingers spread out to spaces between the hills,
and made signs to us that there was that number
of huts there, They were anxious to be taken
aboard but this we would not do, either.
FROZEN.
Only a few miles from where we saw these
moor wretches. some wrecked whaemen stumbled,
not long ago, over group OF Esqulmaux huts.
The snow was untrodden around, but they found
more than twenty beings-not beings, but corpses
ice-preserved, entire, except their eyes and lips
and living down. lifeless dog by lfeless master
The cause of this passing away was mystery
There was food around them, and where food and
fue! are nearly convertible terms, they could hard
~ have been without hire and light Whether 1t
was intense cold or peshence, or poisonous sur
felt the corpscs were there and for au5ht we
know to the contrary, are there still
After this, we sailed along tho coast quietly,
but with the pleasant excitement OF hopeful eX-
pectation w o had not seen the water more open,
1
course for Lancaster Sound, the great highway to
the West. On the 10th Of August the shore was
close upon our left hand, and in spite OF the delu
sons OF Arctic distance, it was, as 1t looked, not
more than five miles OIL.
THE CRIMSON CLIFFS.
By aud bye we came to the Crimson GINS OF
Beverley" the locality of that curious vegetable
growth called the Red Snow The coast here was
butof high and rugged metamorphc rocks, broken
along the scane into precipitous sections, and
where the conformation of the hills permitted,
lined by rough detrettus of broken rock Nj
merous gorges opened out landward, and on these
were patches of snow stained by brownish red
Imagine the work of Titan, with his dredging
box of cayenne or briok.dust, and you have the
Crimson Clliis OF Beverly without the poetry.
II was calm, or nearly such, with the little
wind that was stirring ahead; and this gave me
an opportunity of gong ashore. After iorty'Ve
DAYS imprisonment, hemmed In by snow and ice,
] enjoyed 1t intensely
We were in latitude 769 on, nearly, but eight
hundred and thirty six miles from the Pole and
three hundred and 6tysix from the Northern
most limit ever attained by man. Yet when we
landed within little cove, one side OF which was
formed by n Glacier and the other formed by its
Installations, we found it green, bright green with
moses and a highly elaborated vegetation
The Glacier came down from steep gorge,
whose distant termination was an nee 6oun,
n,cfainc. 1t did not quite fill up the little horse
shoe,like expansion into winch we entered ou'
stood across it, like solid wall or escarpmont
sustaining dome of snow. One side was tro
zen to the opposing cliffs, and the other pr0tradet
into the sea The side presented to us offered s