Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1855-10-31

Business Cards. w
es-Twelve lines constitute square.
$ REPORT OF DR. KANE.
The following is the official report of DR.
Kane. commanding second GrinneH expedi-
tion in search of Sir John Franklin, to the
Secretary of the Navy:
g Our little party have returned in health
and safety. -.
We reached the Danish settlements of
Uppernivik on the 9th of August, after an
exposing travel of thirteen hundred miles.
Duling this journey, which embraced alter
nate zones of ice and water, we transported
our boats by sledges, and sustained ourselves
in animal food exclusively by our guns. We
entered port after eighty -four days exposure
In the open air. x 80
2 g have the honor to subjoin hurried
outline of our operations and results in ad
vance of more detailed communications.
/" Ny previous dispatches make the de-
partment acquainted with our arrival at the
northern settlements of Greenland. Thence
I crossed Melville bay without accident, and
Smiths Sound on the 9th of August, 1858.
Finding Cape Hatherton, the seat of my in
tended beacon, shut out from the sound by
the more prominent. headlana of Littleton Is
land, selected this latter spot for my Cair7,
erecting flag -staf. and depositing dispatches.
g To the north the ice presented a drifting
pack Of the heaviest description, the actions
of hummocking having in some instances
reared barricades of sixty feet in height. In
my efforts to penetrate his drift, being driven
back and nearly beset in the pack, deter.
mined Gas the only means of continuing the
search to attempt a passage along the land
where the rapid tides (here of II to 16 feet
rise and fali) bad worn precarious opening.
Previous to this responsible step, depot of
provisions with metallic life-boat (Francis)
was carefully concealed in large inlet in
latitude 78 deg. 26 min.
The extreme strength of the Advance
enabled her to sustain this trying navigation.
Although aground at the fall of the tide, and
twice upon her beam-ends from the pressure
Of external ice, she escaped any serious dis
aster After month of incessant labor,
chsered however by small daily progress,
the new ice SO closed around US as to make a
further penetration impossible. With diff
Guilty we found winter asylum at the bottom
of bay which opened from the coast in lati-
tude 78 deg A min. Into it we thankfully
hauled our battered little brig on the 10th of
September, 1853. From this point. as a
centre, issued the explosions of my party.
1.-The winter was of heretofore unrecorded
severity. Whiskey froze as early as Novem-
Der, and mercury remained solid for nearly
four months. The range of eleven spirit
thermometers, selected as standards, gave
temperature Cnot yet reduced) of sixty to
segenty-fve degrees below zero. and the mean
nnual temperature was 5 deg. 2 min. Fab
renheit, the lowest ever registered.
:. This extreme cold, combined with one
hundred and twenty days absence of sun
gave rise to an obscure. but fatal form of
.fetanus Qockjaw Tho oxortions of DIR.
Hayes, the surgeon of the expedition, had
readily subdued the scurvy, but these fearful
tendencies to tonic spasms defied our united
efforts. This disorder extended to our dogs.
tifty-seven of which perished, thus complete
ly breaking up my ledge organization.
1.-The operations of search were carried on
under circumstances of peculiar hardship.
We worked at our sledges as late as the 24th
of November, and renewed our labor in
March. Much of thistravel was in darkness,
and some at temperature as low as SO deg.
The earlier winter travel was undertaken by
myself in person but by the aid of single
team OF dogs, and the jealous cooperation of
my officers, we were enabled to replace the
parties as they became exhausted, and thus
continue to search until the 12ih of July. II
is. believed that no previous parties have been
long in the field. Messrs. Brooks. McGearv
sBonsall, Hayes, and Morton successfully con-
tribnted to the general result. The men
Horked with fidelity and endurance. -,
II briefly detail the explorations of our
party 5 =. s9s : s.,f.4 ssesssts ..s.7..sss s !.
s. ]" Smiths Sound has been followed and sur.
veyed throughout its entire extent. Ittermi-
mates to the northeast in gulf 10 miles in