Elisha Kent Kane Diary

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Kentucky rifle, split my ram rods, smashed my powder flask and retorn his forlorn pantaloons. He will neither mend them nor accept from his messmates another pair. I would give him a trunk load of clothes to save my soup plate from his rags. Goodfellow is much in my way. More perhaps when on than off duty. I often wish him back to the negative condition of gentleman passenger.

Mosses beginning to be green!

[Margin] Sunday June 24

Walked on shore - and watched the slow changes. Andromeda in flower. Poppy and Ranunculus the same. Saw two snipe and some tern (S. Arctica). Returning to the brig killed a long tailed duck.

Mr. Ohlsen returned from a walk with Petersen. They saw reindeer and brought back a noble specimen of the King Duck (anas spectabilis). It was a solitary male resplendant with the orange black and green of his head and neck.)

Stephensen is better - and I think that a marked improvement - although slow - shows itself in all of us. I work the men lightly and allow penlty of basking in the sun. We eat a whole set of plants which are barely rescued from the snow and which it requires all and more of botani= cal accumen than I possess to select.

The Pyrola I have not found nor save in one spot the cochlearia - and then so starved and dwarfed as hardly to give a pinch to myself. But we have on the other hand the young sorrel (Rumex Digynus) - and the flowers of the andromeda and willow bark. This latter an excellent tonic and, I think, antiscorbutic.

Mr. Goodfellow shot a seal. He deserves credit for his perseverance. Five days ago he

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could not load a rifle.

[Margin] Monday June 26

This evening at 6 1/2 o'clock, the East Greenland party under McGeary returned all doing well.

They found the coast of Greenland to head N. 70. E - from Cape Frederick to the face of the glacier. This result coincides with my own observations. The coast of Greenland therefore runs rapidly toward the East and is arrested by this enormous protrusion of ice. The trend ^ reduced to [mannus bim?] was E. by N. 3/4 [?] ^ or nearly due E & West ^ a course which allow= ing Greenland to expand at the same rate on the Atlantic coast would have brought us to the point of intersection in 300 geog. miles. The time occupied by this Expedition was but 21 days - the total distance traversed 278 miles.

The caches were destroyed by bears and as I anticipated from the fate of the provisions within my own line of operation not a morsel of Pemican remained ex= cept the tin cases made at my instance by Borden - these being I think iron cylindrical with cone shaped ens the teeth and claws of the animal could make little impression. Pemican should always be in metal or air tight skin cases as the fat will exude at ordinary Arctic summer temperatures and thus ruin the quality of the food.

The power of the bear as seen in the destruction of our depos must be enor= =mous. An alcohol keg - strongly iron bound was dashed to pieces that not a fragment remained. A tin can of liquor was mashed into a hard solid and the claws had

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perforated the metal and torn it up as with a cold chisel. Salt meats - even soaked pork they would not eat but every thing else entered their insatiable maw. Preserved milk and meat biscuit, and ground coffee - and old canvas - even our flag was gnawed down to its very staff. They showed too a spirit of delicate humour for they rolled our bread barrels over the ice foot into the broken ice - and tied hard knots into the threads of our India rubber bags. The whole area around the slopes was marked by their tracks - and they had proof that these strange beasts slide down slopes of over 45º upon their haunches.

The chart of last fall constructed on a plane scale of 1/7th inch to the geogra= phical mile - the present chart upon the same scale is our final one and has been carefully projected by Mr. Sonntag from the combined result of all our operations. the trend and topography of the coast as well as the determinations of position are entitled to more reliance than field operations generally - for in addition to observed positions by ar.t horizon and Chronometer - our results were strengthened by several sets of sextant triangulations and repeated solar bearings -the whole corroberated by comparison with the work of several parties - and rendered positive by being connected by Theodolite with the well determined position of the Winter Observatory.

This position is based upon a well sustained series of lunar culminations, the determination of local time being in no case dependant upon less than twelve star transits. But

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As a means of still further fortifying our results we have [since?] reliable observations of the occultation of Saturn and one of Mars. The observ.n of Feb. 5 was unique. Noonday was intermediate between the immersion and emersion of the planet, and the mean of our standard thermometer showed a temperature of -53º. The undulation of the moons limit was very great, but the agreement of my own and Mr. Sonntags re= sults make the observation satisfactory.

This is I believe the lowest tepera= ture as it is certainly the highest latitude at which an occultation of a planet has been observed. Mr. Sonntag informs me that some of Hansteen's observations were at a very high latitude and I believe that Biot observed at [Bol'Seloy?] in Lat 72º. But our own Winter observations were made under conditions of temperature greatly lower than our predecessors.

For Latitude we depend upon a careful set of Solar altitudes - as well as repeated by theodolite as well as repeated sextant sights.

Althogether, aided by the excellent as well learned eye of Mr. Sonntag --- a thoroughly dependable transit and Theodolite (x1). I am able to claim for the astronomical determination of our geographical position as great if not a greater accuracy than those of any previous Arctic Expedition

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(x1) Note Parry could not use his transit at Melville Transit kindly lent to me by Mr. McCues of Phil. Theodolite placed at disposition by courtesy of A. Dallas Bache of the coast survey.

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[margin] Tuesday 27

The face of the coast of Greenland is nowfound to front hte north. The shore line so long a blank upon our maps now runs to the E. and W. (From E 20º N to W 20ºS) and the enormous glacier which throws its icy barrier to the North is probably the only separation between ourselves and the Atlantic Ocean.

The probability of this most inte= =resting result does not rest upon mere supposition but direct data disclosed by our observations. The trend of the coast as delineated by us--and the trend of the Eastern Shore--as dis= closed by Scoresby and Sabine (x1) would, if their lines were produced, most in Lat 82º -- but one hundred and twenty miles from the furthest point reached by Messrs. McGeary & Bonsall!! In fact our parties penetrated so far to the East that they were but 210 miles from the axis of the peninsula of Greenland and meridian of Cape Farewell.

The terminating barrier to all further penetration--the Great Glacier --is of high physical interest. As an ice growth it is unique (alone) and if we except some of our ^most^ active volcanoes it it is the ^grandest &^ most imposing exhibition of dynamic force ever witnessed upon our globe.

(x1) I discard the doubtful derminations of whalers & Dutch navigators. Scoresby gives the E. Greenland Coast above [left empty] and Sabine at the Pendulum Id.s in Lat [left empty] thus affording to geographers reliable authority for the final direction of shore line as laid down in the Admiral and other Charts.

K.