The Great White North: The story of polar exploration from the earliest times to the discovery of the poleWright, Helen S. (Helen Saunders)
History
The Great White North: The story of polar exploration from the earliest times to the discovery of the pole
Wright, Helen S. (Helen Saunders)
Arctic regions; North Pole
At the end of eighteen days the _Advance_ had reached St. John’s,
Newfoundland, where Governor Hamilton, a brother to the secretary of the
British Admiralty, and other officials, combined with the inhabitants to
welcome the expedition. Upon sailing once more, Dr. Kane was presented
with a noble team of Newfoundland dogs, the gift of the governor.
The _Advance_ reached Baffin Bay without incident, and a few days later
found her off the coast of Greenland, making her way to Fisdernaes, which
was reached the 1st of July,—“amid the clamor of its entire population,
assembled on the rock to greet us.”
Here a native Eskimo, Hans Christiansen, was engaged as interpreter for
the expedition. The _Advance_ then proceeded across Melville Bay in
the wake of vast icebergs, dodging to the rear of these huge floating
masses, holding on to them when adverse winds became annoying, and
pressing forward as opportunity offered. The promontory of Swartehuk was
passed by the 16th. The following day the _Advance_ anchored at Proven,
where Dr. Kane was warmly welcomed by his old friend Christiansen, the
superintendent. Here he made necessary purchases of furs, and these were
speedily made into suitable garments by the superintendent’s wife and
her assistants. While the brig sailed leisurely up the coast, Kane set
out in the whale-boat to make purchases of dogs among the natives of the
different settlements. After a two days’ stay at Upernavik, the _Advance_
proceeded on her course and passed in succession the Eskimo settlement of
Kingatok, the Kettle,—a mountain top so named from the resemblance of its
profile, and finally Zottik, the farthest point of colonization.
[Sidenote: _THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION_]
Inclining more directly to the north, she sighted the landmark known as
the Horse’s Head, and later Ducks Islands, and made for Wilcox Point,
which was passed on the 27th of July. The 2d of August found them well in
the ice and harassed by fogs, but the floes opened at intervals, allowing
the ship to make her slow progress through them. The north water was
comparatively free from obstructions, and by the 5th they had passed the
“Crimson Cliffs” described by Sir John Ross; two days later they doubled
Cape Alexander, and passed in to Smith Sound. At Littleton Island they
stopped to deposit a boat and supply of stores. On August 8 the ship
closed with the ice and bored her way through the loose stream ice some
forty miles beyond Life Boat Cove, when it became impossible to force
her way any farther, and, says Kane: “A dense fog gathering round us, we
were carried helplessly to the eastward. We should have been forced upon
the Greenland coast, but an eddy close in shore released us for a few
moments from direct pressure, and we were fortunate enough to get out a
whale-line to the rocks and warp into a protecting niche.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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