314 HAYES, HALL AND OTHER ADVENTURERS 



Selecting a site for an encampment, they removed thither 

 enough timber from the broken--up vessel to construct a house, to 

 which they also removed enough stores to last them. When these 

 necessaries were secured, they brought more timber ashore, and, 

 during the longer winter night, they employed themselves in con- 

 structing a couple of boats. It was a laborious task, and but slow 

 progress was made until daylight returned. Then they were able 

 to carry on the work faster; but it was the middle of May before 

 they had them finished and seaworthy. 



As soon as the ice began to break up, they launched the boats, 

 which were fully provisioned from the wreck, and on June 3d they 

 sailed away to the south. Three weeks later they sighted a whaler, 

 the "Ravenscraig," who took them aboard, and within a few months 

 of their comrades, whom they thought had all perished, landing in 

 America from the "Tigress," the boat party also landed, having 

 saved, in addition to themselves, all the records of the surveys and 

 observations made by the expedition. These were of great geo- 

 graphical value, making known much of the neighborhood of the 

 straits between Greenland and Grant's Land. The expedition, 

 although attaining to a high latitude, did not succeed in reaching the 

 Pole, but their adventures made a fascinating chapter in the history 

 of Polar research. 



There is one more expedition fitted to speak of in this chapter, 

 as it bore a certain resemblance to those of Hayes and Hall in char- 

 acter. It was an enterprise sent out by the English government in 

 1875, under the command of Sir George Nares, its purpose being 

 to reach the Pole if possible. It comprised two ships, the "Alert" 

 and the "Discovery." 



Pursuing the same course as that of Hall in the "Polaris," they 

 reached the high latitude in which the Robeson Channel opens into 

 the Polar Sea. Here the "Discovery" wintered, while the "Alert" 

 went farther north, taking with her an officer and a sledge team of 

 men from the "Discovery," to be sent back overland when winter 

 quarters were selected. 



