A PHENOMENAL CRUISE. 77 



to the northward, one flat, monotonous expanse of ice was 

 all that could be seen, with here and there a seal or a walrus 

 basking in the sun."' 



From this position, in latitude 80 deg. 10 min. north, Cap- 

 tain Wadleigh turned back and went to Hammerfest for a 

 supply of coal. On the 16th of September he again started 

 north, and proceeded to Spitzbergen, cruising under sail, 

 and getting as far north as 79 deg. 36 min. The weather 

 for several days was a succession of gales, snow, sleet, and 

 dense fogs. On the 25th he headed for Reykjavik, and 

 arrived there October 10th. Five days later he started 

 homeward by way of Halifax, and reached New York in 

 November. 



Mr. Macdonna considers the cruise of the Alliance the 

 most phenomenal one ever made in the Arctic seas. He 

 declares that the ship was utterly unfit for the dangerous 

 work mapped out for her, and that no sufficient preparation 

 for the voyage had been made notwithstanding which, she 

 reached the highest point ever attained by a man-of-war. 

 This success he regards as an evidence of good luck rather 

 than anything else, and he thinks that experience in Arctic 

 explorations is no guarantee against failure. "If," he wrote, 

 " Commander Wadleigh had had a ship that could have 

 withstood the ice, there is no doubt, under the favorable cir- 

 cumstances, that we could have carried the American flag 

 beyond the eight first parallel of latitude. Tempting as 

 was the chance, Commander Wadleigh did not take the risk ; 

 for had any accident overtaken the ship, its results would 

 have been without parallel in the history of Arctic naviga- 

 tion. Never before has any ship with two hundred souls on 

 board ventured so far north as the Alliance; and, with such 

 a number to feed, in case the ship was lost and the crew 

 compelled to winter, famine would have had a race with 

 scurvy for the men and officers." 



In summarizing the results of the voyage Captain Wad- 

 leigh says : " At sea, near the land or ice, a careful watch 

 has been kept for anything that would throw any light on 



