3 i6 HAYES, HALL AND OTHER ADVENTURERS 



the hummock formed an admirable shelter from the pressure of the 

 pack. This was often so severe that masses over 30,000 tons in 

 weight were broken off and forced up the inclined shore, rising 

 twelve and fourteen feet higher out of the water as they crunched 

 along the ground. 



With the opening of the next spring a sledging party was sent 

 out, taking with it two whale-boats in case open water should be 

 reached. There proved no need of these boats, the supposed "open 

 polar sea" of Kane and Hayes proving a vast sheet of ice, seemingly 

 of such ancient origin that Nares gave it the title of "palseocrystic 

 ice." 



As the days went on the toil of dragging the sledges over the 

 endless ice field grew intensely wearisome, and although the men 

 stuck to their task with true British obstinacy, it began to tell upon 

 them. One man fell sick, growing weaker and weaker until he was 

 no longer able to pull, and then was unable to walk. One of the 

 boats was abandoned, and the sick man laid on a sledge. His con- 

 dition was more than disquieting to the leaders, for it was evident 

 he was suffering from scurvy, and no one could say who would be 

 the next to develop it. 



On April 23d they added only a mile and a quarter to their 

 distance, for they had come upon clumps of ice hummocks which 

 made their progress so difficult that they had to combine forces to 

 haul first one sledge and then another over the obstacles. On April 

 28th, when they were seventeen miles from the shore, they found the 

 track of a hare in the snow, going towards the land, but with the 

 footprints so close together that the animal was evidently very weak. 

 Where it had come from, or how it had got so far from the shore, 

 were riddles they could not solve. 



As May came in signs of scurvy made themselves only too 

 evident among the members of the crew, and on May nth the 

 leaders decided that the next day they would have to turn south 

 once more. They started with a light sledge in the morning and 



