PLANTING THE FLAG. 351 



It now only remained for us to plant our flag in 

 token of our discovery, and to deposit a record in 

 proof of our presence. The flags ^ were tied to the 

 whip-lash, and suspended between two tall rocks, and 

 while we were building a cairn, they were allowed to 

 flutter in the breeze ; then, tearing a leaf from my 

 note-book, I wrote on it as follows : — 



" This point, the most northern land that has ever been reached, 

 was visited by the undersigned. May 18th, 19th, 1861, accompanied 

 by George F. Knorr, traveling with a dog-sledge. We arrived here 

 after a toilsome march of forty-six days from my winter harbor, 

 near Cape Alexander, at the mouth of Smith Sound. My observa- 

 tions place us in latitude 81° 35', longitude 70° 30', W. Our fur- 

 ther progress was stopped by rotten ice and cracks. Kennedy 

 Channel appears to expand into the Polar Basin ; and, satisfied that 

 it is navigable at least during the months of July, August, and Sep- 

 tember, I go hence to my winter harbor, to make another trial to 

 get through Smith Sound with my vessel, after the ice breaks up 



this summer. 



"L L Hates. 

 ''May 19th, 1861." 



This record being carefully secured in a small glass 

 vial, which I brought for the purpose, it was deposited 

 beneath the cairn ; and then our faces were turned 

 homewards. But I quit the place with reluctance. 



1 These were a small United States flag (boat's ensign), which had 

 been carried in the South Sea Expedition of Captain Wilkes, U. S. N., 

 and afterwards in the Arctic Expeditions of Lieut. Comg. DeHaven and 

 Dr. Kane ; a httle United States flag which had been committed to Mr. 

 Sonntag by the ladies of the Albany Academy ; two diminutive Masonic 

 flags intrusted to me, — one by the Kane Lodge of IsTew York, the other 

 by the Columbia Lodge of Boston ; and our Expedition signal-flag, bear- 

 ing the Expedition emblem, the Pole Star — a crimson star, on a white 

 field — also a gift from fair hands. Being under ihe obligation of a sacred 

 promise to unfurl all of these flags at the most northern point attained, it 

 •was my pleasing duty to carry them with me — a duty rendered none the 

 less pleasing by the circumstance that, together, they did not weigh three 

 pounds. 



