Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857) was the indefatigable American popular hero who, afflicted with rheumatic fever, led two expeditions to the Arctic searching for the English explorer, Sir John Franklin. The work, based on Kane's journals and letters, recounts the hazards, of the second ill-fated voyage, when Kane's brig froze fast in the ice, he and his men straggled down the coast of Greenland to safety.