Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial

Subjects:

Exploration, Heroism

    Comments on the adulation accorded to the surgeon and explorer Elisha K Kane upon his return to America in the early 1850s after his second arctic expedition in search of John Franklin's ill-fated ships, and recalls how the English novelist William M Thackeray, after hearing the 'brave little man [...] tell the tale of his voyage', wished 'to kneel down and kiss his boots' (958).