Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1854-02-08

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Gated by the friends of the writer. twill be read
with interest, as furnishing the first information
which has reached us, from our countrymen, shut
out from friends and the world, amid the eternal
ice-barriers of the Polar seas: -.5
UPERSAvIK, Greenland July %, '53. .
81 shall never forget my obligations to you for
letting me go. can only say, that if ever get
back, and live to get married and have a son,
will send him on az Arctic expedition like this, if
l can find one. 1t makes a man of one to see
what dangers men can meet and ward off, and at
last learn to look with contempt upon. Such in
spring sights, too! The sun shining day and
night on these naked precipices, and the great
whales, and the greater icebergs! wish could
think you would not laugh at me if should attempt
a fine description of the icebergs. They are what
you would call the prevailing architecture of these
regions, and declare to you we have now met so
many that to see new one creates no more feel
ing in my breast than house additional anywhere
up town. At this moment we have more than
two hundred in full view-two hundred and six
teen counted. s............. .. ...... .. -
OC ObhSSu W yOu IL yOu WI HiJ
father, and the rest, how little they need fear for
our safety. No one has dpprehensons on board
for anything, if DR.. Kane keeps we'll. He don't
like to have questions put him about his health,
you know; but believe his rheumatism is much
better, though he keeps thin. He has gone through
good deal, too, since we got here. Those wild
people (they are all fat and fur, like winter pos
sums) hate to part with their wicked devils Of dogs
and Dr. Kane had to travel through the country to
buy them up. He had to traverse the fiords be-
tween Kangeit and Carsuk, if you know where
that is, and thence to Upernavik, the party camp.
ng out and sleeping under buffalo robes, and liv-
ing upon birds they cooked upon the rocks. They
were out nearly all last week in their open boats,
and found it hard work, I believe. They made
fifty miles at single pull. ...........
CDR. Kane, however, has obtoined everything |
he wanted --sledges harnesses and dogs, reindeer,
seal and bear furs, boot moccasns, walrus lash
ings, and great many articles with whose names
| am as yet unacquainted. And all this without
losing moments time; for the calm had lasted
till now, and everything has been transacted with
ouL Jul W ui .. ..t a-
"As soon as the right wind blows, we are off
again. All those whose authority is valuable, de-
clare we have had very fortunate voyage.
will now inform you of our future. have what
l say from the first authority; you may therefore
rely upon it.
"On reaching the highest navigable points on
the eastern point of Smiths Sound that is, W here
ever by the utmost effort our negro hard headed
brig can be butted, DR.. Kane seeks harbor in
some intended cape, if possible projecting into the
channel, and opening to the south and west. Such,
both by theory and experience, DR.. Kane deems
best suited for protection and an early liberation
from the ice.
"The moment we are in harbor, the very in
slant, starts the Provision Depot Foot Party
This Fall Expedition the experience of the British
has declared impracticable, Gmpoite,) but we save
days which are golden in their value, and perhaps
may carry the boat to some valuable point for fu-
ture embarkation and search. The boat is already |
prepared, the pemican bags slowed upon its floor,
and her name, The Forlorn Hope, is painted upon
the stern. She is twenty-five feet long, and care
fully strengthened. A breast bar or transverse
piece of timber is so adjusted across her gunwale
as to admit of the pushing action--the most effec-
tive application for the purpose of the human force
of eight men, Dr. Kane walking in advance to
pick the way. She carries an India rubber hous-
ing for the night or rather the sleep, for the night
will be perpetual, and sedge upon which we
can temporarily place her cargo.
"It makes scme CT our boys feel queer when we
look at the boat. With this little craft we, or
rather they, (for do not know that will be de-
tailed) have to sail, row, drag and pull, over all
the alternate ice and water, till they give out en-
tirely, and can go no further with her. They then
Hope to her fate. after carefully walling her in
with ice, to keep her precious store from the VOL
verines and bears. So much of their journey will
be in the midst of the winter darkness, that the
party will have to find their way back to the brig
guided by the stars and moon. I rather think
whoever stays on board the Advance, will receive
them with welcome Of some hot coffee
"Then comes the work-the work for us all
next spring. There is the right spirit, sir, you
may depend upon it, resting with our company
rather guess we'll carry the American flag as
far north as any Of the English naval gentlemen,
with their fine names, and uniform, and equip
ments; but Well do it with the right feeling
You have no idea how, by having Sir John Frank
lin as the object of our search, and his picture
hanging in the cabin, and always thinking and
talking about him, what remarkable place he
has in our minds. We consider he is where DR..
Kane thinks he is; but if he is anywhere else,,we
will go after him. If he is gone to Heaven, poor
man, why, then, as in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's
case, perhaps seeking him viii be our shortest
way of getting there" 3g3I
A New York paper tells of market woman
who, last fall, was holding some pumpkins in her