304 HAYES, HALL AND OTHER ADVENTURERS 



him into the hut as quickly as possible, he placed him in the sleeping 

 bag, administered some brandy, and having tightly closed the hut, 

 lighted their alcohol lamp, for the double purpose of elevating the 

 temperature and making some coffee. His efforts were in vain; 

 Sonntag never recovered consciousness, and in a few hours died. 



Hans continued his journey alone, but found it difficult to 

 discover any Eskimos, and from those he met at length no dogs 

 were to be had. When he returned his. team was reduced to five 

 miserable attenuated dogs, while the unfortunate trip had resulted 

 in the death of one of the most esteemed members of the party. 



With the approach of spring, however, Dr. Hayes succeeded 

 in purchasing some good dogs from Eskimos who visited his camp, 

 until he got together a group of seventeen hardy animals. With 

 these he set out on a preliminary trip northward, of which we need 

 only say that one morning, when he emerged from his sleeping 

 cave in the snow, he found the thermometer to record the bitterly 

 low temperature of 68 degrees below zero, or 100 degrees below the 

 freezing point. We find few records surpassing this, though Dr. 

 Cook in his recent polar trip reports the extraordinary low tempera- 

 ture of 83 degrees Fahrenheit. During this excursion Rensselaer 

 Harbor was reached and traces of Dr. Kane's ship, the "Advance," 

 were sought. None were found, and it became probable that the 

 deserted ship had sunk before the onset of the ice-floes. 



Returning from this preliminary excursion, preparations were 

 made for a more extended one, and on the 3d of April the party, 

 twelve in number, set out merrily with two sledges, "The Hope," 

 drawn by eight dogs, and "The Perseverance," by six. It did not 

 go on merrily, for difficulties and obstacles beset the explorers, so 

 that in twenty-two days they advanced only thirty miles. Four 

 more days passed, and then, on April 28th, being half-way across 

 the iCane Basin, Hayes sent back eight of his men, proceeding with 

 three companions in his dash towards Grinnell Land, on the oppo- 

 site side of the water. This was not reached until May nth, after 

 thirty-eight days of exhausting labor. 



