Elisha Kent Kane Diary

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He did not return last night but Dr. Hayes and Mr. Ohlsen who were sent after him with the dog sledge - found the hardy savage fast asleep - not five miles from the brig - Alongside of him was a large Seal shot as usual in the head. He had dragged it for seven hours over the Ice foot.

The ice breaks up slowly. Hans reports the open water as extending beyond the Esquimaux huts - between them and Godsend ridge with a slight bend to the nd[northward].

[Margin] Sunday June 11

Another walk on shore showed me the Andromeda in flower - the saxafrages and carices green beneath the dried tufts of last year. This rapidly maturing vegetation is of curious interest in the case of the Andromeda Tetragona the plant had advanced rapidly towards putrification without a corresponding development of other parts. The stalks and leaflets ( ) were dry and instead of the graceful growths which characterised the heaths. It presented a low scrubby sod - or turf studded with flowers. The localities from which these were taken were well infiltrated with melted snows retained by the dead mosses. The rocks too so enclosed them as to aid by reverberation the solar heat.

Few of us at home can realise the protection of this warm coverlid of snow. No Eider down in the cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than these creeping anemones or the late seasoned ranunculi by their snowy covering. The first warm snows of Aug & Sept: falling upon a thickly pleached carpet of carices (grasses) Ericas (heaths) and willows- (salices-) invests the hoary growths which nestle around them with a non conducting air chamber and as each successive snow increases the thickness of

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of the cover we have (in advance of) before the intense cold of winter a light cellular bed, which once covered by drift, six, eight or ten feet deep enables the vital actions of the plants to resist the slight elevation above the freezing point which reaches it from above.

The frozen subsoil about 18 inches in the Rensselare Summer does not reencroach upon the plant when thus protected. In midwinter in this high latitude of 78º.52 I have found the surface so nearly moist as to be friable to the touch; and upon the ice floes, commencing with a surface temperature of -30º, I found at 2 feet -8º at 4, +.2º and at 8 feet +26º. This was the largest of a range of E. & West hummock drifts in the open [unclear]Estuary[/unclear] off Cape Stafford.

My experiments prove as might be expected that the conducting power of the snow is directly proportional to its compression by winds rains drift or compilation. The christaline structure is another item of [moment?] for the early fall spring & late fall and summer snows are more cellular and less condensed than the nearly impalpable powder of winter. A beautiful influence of this simple fact upon the interests of the subjacent flower life is I has struck me again and again. It is clear that the drifts thus in the course of 4 months accumulating upon the plant and generally upon inclined slopes exposed to the sun must be in layers of different densities 1st the warm cellular snows of fall, next the finely imparted products of winter and, above these, the last warmer watery thawing snows of late spring. These last soon influenced by solar heat send their watery percolations to the denser stratas above [below?] them and soon perfectly honeycombed by heat crumble down upon this more resisting bed - where the water watery surface like the is spread over the surface of the firmer

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snow like rain on reaching a bed of Clay - If at this early Season the waters should per= meate through the Second bed - they would overwhelm the flowers beneath - for not only does freezing occur nightly - and in frequent intervals but independently of the destructive influence of water - Avenues would soon be opened admitting the more destructive atmosphere. (For results See Notes Vol. i & loose.)

Our day passed quietly - too quietly for those who at the close of a season full of toil and privation are awaiting idly the change which may or may not open to them another field of action. Our five well men make the brig seem deserted - they have been gone eight days - and William Godfrey the one man able to join them with the sledge is on the sick list. This William is a bad man in principle - though very useful. One of those unsatisfactory beings "that you never know where to find".

[Margin] Monday June 12

Rode out with the dogs - not as before my sickness - yelling whipping and controlling - brute force against brute force our flying wolves - but muffled in a deer skin - wrapped and leaning against the "upstanders." Yet if I can only get home to report to Father and Grinnell the result of all this - my satisfaction and gratitude will surpass - my hopes!

Sonntag who was well enough to take a few magnetic comparisons has had a relapse - Stephenson had the same yester= day. Dr. Hayes had not reacted since his journey and Ohlsen had sore eyes. What poor feeble devils we are - and what a commentary upon pride of strength it is that our one well man should now be the man least worked - best nursed fed and slept as

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[Margin:] Tuesday June 13.

and exempt from hygienic rules - physic or restraint - our one repartory and hitherto worthless Goodfellow. It would rejoice me for God's sake if he would turn over a new leaf and buckle to like a man.

Bill is better spirited he can take the dog journey!

William Godfrey said that he was unable to start this morning to continue the search to the north west.

Although I am convinced that this man is malingering I cannot force him to a stop which desirable as it may be to me might inspire him against his reported wishes. I never send a man upon a journey unless by his full consent and the secret of my success lies in this. Every man is a volunteer.

This William is a bad non reliable man - already in arrears - for unnatural offences. He and John have done more to disturb the efficiency and comfort of the crew than scurvy, darkness, and cold combined. But we are all weak in health William among the rest. I therefore said not one word of reproof but opened to him how much I lose by his not driving to the absent party and left him to his reflections.

Hans came in this evening with another Reindeer - a good sized male. The antlers were quite recent in growth - about 10 in in height but not yet palmated. A hairy pubescence completely covered them.

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This is a welcome [engrafting?] upon our seal meat.

Hans thinks that the open water seen last between Godsend Id. and Esquimaux Point has worked up nearer Bedevil= led Reach. The ice is quite unsafe off Sylvia Head, and seal lie by their Attuk between our brig and the shore.

Made arrangements for the disposition of our coal - reserving twenty kegs for our use should we make open water - and the remainder barely enough to last us for the present month. Separated for use. We have a store of wood but so much for Brooks and his coal. In oil we are again stocked. Our seal yield is an average of five gallons each. I sup= pose we have a barrel (32 gall) already tried out. Ten seal make a barrel as is the case at Uppernavik at this season. In the winter they use from ten to fourteen. The blubber occupies the same volume as is the oil subsequently boiled from it. A fact somewhat puzzling to those who remember the abundant cellular tissue which sustains the fat cells. It is explained by the increased expansion of the oil with change of climate & season.

[Margin:] Wednes June 14

By great exertion Hans was practised during the entire day with the sledge. In spite of the sneering prognostics of that poor devil Godfrey he learnt rapidly the main essential. The whip was already acquired by Hans in the childish games of [Fiskirnas?]. At 1. P.M. he started. Petersen and Hayes pilotted him to the land ice and thus I accomplished a substitute for my rennegade.