Nebraska advertiser. [volume] (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]) 1856-1882, 1856-12-06
gfIiisteIIantous,
LIFE AMONG rHz 1cE,F1ELDs.


lowing extracts from Doctor Kane's
recent work, descriptive of his expe-
dition to the Arctic regions, in search
of Sir John Franklin:
The next day gave us admirable
progress. The ice opened in leads be-
fore us, somewhat tortuous, but, on the
whole, favoring, and for sixteen hours
l never left the helm. We were all of
US exhausted when the days work
came to close. Our allowance had
been small from the first; but the delays
we seemed fated to encounter had made
me reduce them to what I then thought
the minimum quantity-six ounces of
bread-dust, and lump of tallow the
size of walnut. A paste or broth
made of these before setting out in the
morning, and distributed occasionally
through the day, in scanty rations, was
our only fare. We were all of us glaa
when, running the boats under the lee
of berg, we were able to fill our
kettles with snow, and boil up for our
restorative, tea. | may remark that,
under the circumstances of most pri-
yation, l found no comfort so welcome
to the party as this We drank i'm
moderately of it, and always with ad-
vantage.
While the men slept, after their
weary labor, M'Gary and myself
climbed the berg for view ahead. 1t
was a saddening one. We had lost
sight Of Cary Island; but shoreward,
up Wostenholme Channel, the ice
seemed as if it had not yet begun to
yield to the Influences of summer
Every thing showed how intense the
last winter had been. We were close
upon the first of July, and had a right
to look for the North Water of the
wha4ers Erhers lassrT had selid ice or
cl8sc pack both Of them almost
oqnally tlaslg be to eur progress.
Fsf off in the distance -how fair /
could aasaEe rose the Dalryfn-
pie Rock, projecting from the lofty
precipice of the island ahead; but be-
tween us and it the land-ice spread
itself from the base of Saunders Island
unbroken to the far South.
The next days progress was, of
course, slow and wearisOme, pushing
through alternate ice and water for the
land-belt We fastened at last to the
great foe near the shore, making our
harbor in crack which opened with
the changes of tide.
The imperfect diet of the party was
showing itself more and more in the
decline of their muscular power. They
seemed scarcely aware of it themselves,
and referred the difficulty they found
in dragging and pushing to something
uncommon about the ice or sludge,
rather than to their own Weakness
But, as we endeavored to renew our
labors through the morning fog, belted
in on all sides by iee-felds so distort-
ed and rugged as to defy our efforts. to
cross them, the truth seemed to burst
upon every one. We had lost the
feeling Of hunger, and were almost
satisfied with our pasty broth and the
large droughts of tea which accom-
panied it. [ was anxious to send our
small boat, the Eric, across the lumme-
hill Of Appah, where | knew from the
Esquimaux we should find plenty Of
birds; but the strength of the party
was insufficient to drag her.
We were sorely dishaartened, and
could only wait for the fog to rise, in
the hope of some smoother platform
than that which was about us, or some
lead that might save US the painful
labor of track. I had climbed the ice
berg, and there was nothing in view
except Dalrymple Rock, with its rec
brassy face towering in the unknown
distance. But I hardly got back t.
my boat before d gale struck us from
the northwest, and a foe, taken upor
a tongue of ice about a mile to thc
north of us, began to swing upon i
like pivot, and close slowly in upor
our resting-place.
AT first our own foe, also, was driver
before the wind, but in little while
! it encountered the stationary ice a
the foot of the very rock itself. Oh
the instant the widest imaginable ruiz
rose around us. The men spranl
mechanically each one to his station
bearing back the boats and stores; bu
| / gave up for the moment all hopes o
our escape. 1t was not a nip, such a
lis familiar to the Arctic navigators
but the whole platform where westood
and for hundreds Of yards on ever,
side Of lis, crumbled, and crushed, an
piled itself, and tossed, madly unde
the pressure. I do not believe tha
of our little body Of men, all of the1
disciplined in trials, able to measur
] danger while combating i'll do no
! believe there is one who this day ca
explain how or why-hardly when, i
lfact-we found ourselves ahoat w