o be abandoned. The day was Sunday. Prayers were read,
and then Doctor Kane addressed his men, hopefully pointing out their
duty, and encouraging them to proceed, unselfishly helping the sick and
behaving like men. The flags were then hoisted and struck; then the
_Advance_ was abandoned, and the retreat commenced to Littleton Island
first, and thence to Danish Settlements.

It was Tuesday, the 19th of June, when the party took a last leave of
the Esquimaux and put to sea; that first night a boat was swamped. The
_Eric_ went down in the ice; the _Faith_ and _Hope_ remained. On the
22nd, Northumberland Island was reached in a blinding snowstorm; but
fresh provisions were fortunately procured.

They then succeeded, by dragging the boats over the ice, with occasional
rowing, in crossing the Murchison Channel, and encamped for the night on
the land ice-floe. Thus they proceeded, amid tremendous difficulties,
on scanty food--bread-dust and a lump of tallow about the size of a
walnut--and tea when they could procure water. At length they found the
loads heavier, and came to the sad conclusion that their energies were
giving way. Nothing in view, "we were sorely disheartened," says Doctor
Kane.

No wonder! Utterly at the mercy of the ice, which at times broke up,
and fell down, threatening to carry them to destruction with it, or bury
them amid the hummocks. Hemmed in, and in imminent danger of death,
they nevertheless clung to the ice until the rising tide should float
them up and enable them to scale the icy cliffs into comparative
shelter--"Weary Man's Rest."

There they remained till the snow had abated, and then they struggled on
amid ice and "sludge" until checked by a glacier. They had doubled Cape
Dudley Digges, and after a survey, decided to wait in the ice at
"Providence Halt." After a week's rest they again continued their way,
past the "Crimson Cliffs," and into more cheerful regions. They were,
however, nearly starving, but managed to secure a seal, which saved them
for the time; their feet were badly swollen, and they had no desire to
sleep. They were now drifting in the open bay (in the Atlantic
"ice-drift") in leaky boats, a position sufficiently perilous, even
without the accompaniments of hunger and sleeplessness.

On the 1st of August, however, they had reached familiar waters. Two
days later a cry was heard, ending in a "hullo." Men were coming, in a
small boat. "It is the Upernavik oil