“It was slowly that the conviction dawned on me that I was looking upon the counterpart of the great river system of Arctic Asia and America. Yet here were no water-feeders from the south. Every particle of moisture had its origin within the polar circle, and had been converted into ice. There were no vast alluvions, no forest or animal traces borne down by liquid torrents. Here was a plastic, moving, semi-solid mass, obliterating life, swallowing rocks and islands, and ploughing its way with irresistible march through the crust of an investing sea.” [Sidenote: _RETURN AND ILLNESS OF DR. KANE_] By May 5, Dr. Kane became delirious and fainted every time he was taken from the tent. “My comrades would kindly persuade me that, even had I continued sound, we could not have proceeded on our journey. The snows were very heavy, and increasing as we went; some of the drifts perfectly impassable, and the level floes often four feet deep in yielding snow. The scurvy had already broken out among the men, with symptoms like my own; and Morton, our strongest man, was beginning to give way. “It is the reverse of comfort to me that they shared my weakness. All that I could remember with pleasurable feeling is, that to five brave men, Morton, Riley, Hickey, Stephenson, and Hans, themselves scarcely able to travel, I owe my preservation. They carried me back by forced marches, after caching our stores and India-rubber boat near Dallas Bay, in lat. 79° 5´, long. 66°.” Such was the “failure” of the Grand Expedition! The gentle hand of summer now extended much-needed relief to the stricken crew. Seals began to appear and in such large numbers that there was no want of fresh meat, which worked wonders in the health of those suffering with scurvy. Snow-buntings and gulls and eider-ducks came winging their way to their northern breeding places—and the warm sun brought out the welcome verdure with marvellous rapidity. Dr. Kane’s health improved, but he was obliged to give up further sledge journeys. To Dr. Hayes was intrusted a journey in which he reached the opposite coast of Grinnell Land, which he surveyed as far as Cape Frazer. On June 1, Morton left the brig with Hans, the Eskimo, for the purpose of surveying the Greenland coast beyond the Humboldt Glacier. The lateness of the season rendered much of the ice extremely unsafe.