Two  vessels,  under  the  command  of  Dr.  Elisba
KentKaiie  (surgeon  of  the  first  expedition)  sailed
from  New  York  in  May.  Kane  and  his  party
made  valuable  discoveries,  among  others,  of  an
"open  polar  sea," so  long  suspected  aud  sought
for  by  scientific  men  aud  navigators.  But  they
failed  to  find  Sir  John  Franklin.  The  compa-
nies of  these  two  vessels  suffered  much,  aud  were
finally  compelled  to  abandou  the  ships  and  make
their  way  in  open  boats  to  a  Danish  settlement
in  Greenland.  Their  long  absence  created  fears
for  their  safety,  and  a  relief  expedition  was  sent
in  search  of  them.  They  returned  home  in  the
vessels  of  the  latter  in  the  autumn  of  1855.  The
fate  of  Sir  John  Franklin  and  his  crew  is  yet
one  of  the  mysteries  of  the  sea.  The  object  of
his  search — the  discovery  of  a  northwest  pas-
sage from  Europe  to  ludia — yet  occupies  men's
minds  and  the  efforts  of  scientific  men  and  navi-
gators. The  search  has  been  going  on  for  more
than  three  hundred  years.  The  question  wheth-
er there  is  a  water  connection  in  the  polar  re-
gions between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans,
or,  rather,  between  Baffin's  Bay  and  Behring's
Strait,  was  solved  in  October,  1853,  by  Captain
McClure,  of  the  British  ship  Investigator.  He-
passed  through  Behring's  Strait  and  sailed  east-
ward to  a  point  whence,  with  sleds,  he  travelled
on  the  ice  to  another  i)oint  eastward,  to  which
Captaiu  Parry  and  other  navigators  had  pene-
trated. Before  this  the  nmte  whale  had  dem-
onstrated the  scientific  fact  to  the  satisfaction
of  naturalists.  The  same  species  are  found  ii>
Behring's  Strait  and  Baffin's  Bay,  and  as  the
waters  of  the  tropical  regions  would  be  like  a
sea  of  tire  to  them,  they  must  have  had  conimu-
uication  through  polar  channels.  De  Haven's
expedition  met  with  many  perils  amid  the  ice-
packs iu  the  polar  seas,  and  the  vessels  were
frozen  in  from  late  iu  September,  1850,  until
May,  1851,  during  the  long  six  months'  night  of
the  Arctic  regions.  One  of  the  vessels  was
placed  by  the  currents  aud  the  ice-floes  in  a  ca-
reening position,  and  was  not  released  from  it
until  May,  1851,  when  she  was  cut  out  of  the  ice.
