[8 Dr. Kane says, on page 379 of his works: "I
cannot imagine what becomes of the ice. A strong current sets in
constantly to the north; but, from altitudes of more than five
hundred feet, I saw only narrow strips of ice, with great spaces
of open water, from ten to fifteen miles in breadth, between
them. It must, therefore, either go to an open space in the
north, or dissolve."]

I remember that neither my father nor myself had tasted food for
almost thirty hours. Perhaps this was because of the tension of
excitement about our strange voyage in waters farther north, my
father said, than anyone had ever before been. Active mentality
had dulled the demands of the physical needs.

Instead of the cold being intense as we had anticipated, it was
really warmer and more pleasant than it had been while in
Hammerfest on the north coast of Norway, some six weeks
before.[9]

[9 Captain Peary's second voyage relates another
circumstance which may serve to confirm a conjecture which
has long been maintained by some, that an open sea, free of ice,
exists at or near the Pole. "On the second of November," says
Peary, "the wind freshened up to a gale from north by west,
lowered the thermometer before midnight to 5 degrees,
whereas, a rise of wind at Melville Island was generally
accompanied by a simultaneous rise in the thermometer at low
temperatures. May not this," he asks, "be occasioned by the wind
blowing over an open sea in the quarter from which the wind
blows? And tend to confirm the opinion that at or near the