242 SMITH SOUND 



spots were heightened in intensity of shade and multi- 

 plied in size as they receded, until the belt of the 

 water-sky blended them all together into one uniform 

 colour of dark blue. The old and solid floes (some a 

 quarter of a mile, and others miles across) and the 

 massive ridges and wastes of hummocked ice which 

 lay piled between them and around their margins, were 

 the only parts of the sea which retained the whiteness 

 and solidity of winter." 



Unfortunately for Hayes, the astronomer of the 

 expedition, August Sonntag, who had assisted Kane in 

 the same capacity, was frozen to death on a sledge 

 journey, and the doctor was left to do the work for 

 himself, with disappointing results, as with errors of 

 many miles in either latitude or longitude his journeys 

 can only be noticed in a very general way. In October, 

 1860, he proceeded for some distance over the glacier 

 to the east of his wintering place. The first attempt to 

 scale the glacier was attended by what might have been 

 a serious accident. The foremost member of the party 

 missed his footing as he was clambering up the rude 

 steps, and, sliding down the steep side, scattered those 

 who were below him to the right and left and sent them 

 rolling into the valley beneath. The next effort was 

 more successful, and, the end of a rope being carried 

 over the side of the glacier, the sledge was drawn up 

 the inclined plane and a fair start obtained. A little 

 further on Hayes was only saved from disappearing 

 down a crevasse by clutching a pole he was carrying on 

 his shoulder. Next day, the surface being smoother, 

 more progress was made, and they reached a plain of 

 compact snow covered with a crust through which the 



