The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1857-03-12

Franklin, in the behalf Of her husband, Sir
John Franklin. He was in the Gulf Of Mexi-
co, when on the 18th of May, 1850, he receiv-
ed orders to repair Immediately to New York
and join the Grinnel Expedition to the Arctic
regions under Lieutenant De Haven. OF this
expedition he was the surgeon. the naturalist
and the historian. He was absent about 15
months, during which he developed those quail
tiles which 80 eminently fitted him for Arctic
search. eag 9.....r.g...,s ...t.
Scarcely allowing himself time to rest after
this cruise, he set on foot another expedition to
explore the coast of Greenland, passing thro'
Smiths Sound, towards the pole, where he ex-
pected to find an open Polar Sea. With the
particulars of his voyage the public are fault
lar. Having only twenty men in one small
vessel, with insufficient stores, he braved the
rigors of two Arctic winters further North
than any adventurer had ever before wlntered
The hardships and sufferings attending this
cruise taxed The endurance of Kane and his
companions to the utmost. During the last
year they were in the Arctic regions death
constantly stared them in the face, and 1t was
only:problematical whether his shafts would
be tipped with cold, disease or starvation.
1t was only by the unfaltering energy Of DIR.
Kane, that his party, diminished in numbers,
extricated itself during the third season, after
. remarkable and perilous boat voyage of 1900
miles, large part of the way over and thro'
ice. This expedition greatly extended the se-
ographical knowledge of the northern coasts
OF Greenland and America, and verified, it
is believed, the existence of an open Polar
Sea. A#a
Scurvy made sad havoc with the constitu-
tion Of DR.. Kane during the voyage, develop
ing tubulous and scrofulous symptoms, from
which he never recovered. He went to En-
gland some months since for the benefit Of his
health and was received with high honors -
But the tour he had contemplated was cut
short by the alarming progress Of his disease.
From England he went to st. Thomas and Gu
ba, under the advice Of his physicians, but
his constitution had been too much shattered
to recuperate. DR.. Kane has illustrated in
his own person the powers Of human endu-
rance against disease. He had the rice fever
in the Canton river, the plague in Egypt, the
yellow fever at Rio, the congestive at Puebla,
and the African on the coast. These, and
wounds, and an organic disease of the heart,
which he has had from boyhood, poorly fitted
him for the fatigue and sufferings of life in
the Artic region. There the scurvy, that worst
of all ailments for wounded body and diseas-
ed constitution, repeatedly attacked him, and
his preservation and return is little less than
miraculous, forcibly illustrating the power of
the mind over the body.
The daring and adventurous spirit Of Dr..
Kane has indlssolubly connected his name with
Arctic adventure, while his services in the field
of geographical discovery and scientific re-
search have redouaded to the honor of his
country. He las shed lustre upon the country
Of his birth while achieving a Lame for him
self. A nation will sorrow at the loss of one
whose few years of life held out the hope OF
many long years Of continued usefulaess, and
who was cut down in the vigor Of manhood
and when he had just reached the zenith of his
fame.