INTRODUCTION. 



PLAN OF THE EXPEDITION. — FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT. — APPEAL TO SCIENTIFIO 

 SOCIETIES. — AID SOLICITED. — PUBLIC LECTURES. — LIBERALITY OF VARI- 

 OUS SOCIETIES AND INDIVIDUALS. — VESSEL PURCHASED IN BOSTON. — IN- 

 TEREST MANIFESTED IN 'SEAT CITY. — DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING A PROPER 

 CREW.— ORGANIZATION OP THE PARTY. — SCIENTIFIC OUTFIT. — ABUNDANT 

 SUPPLIES. 



I PURPOSE to record in this Book the events of the 

 Expedition which I conducted to the Arctic Seas. 



The plan of the enterprise first suggested itself to 

 me while acting as Surgeon of the Expedition com- 

 manded by the late Dr. E. K. Kane, of the United 

 States Navy. Although its execution did not appear 

 feasible at the period of my return from that voyage 

 in October, 1855, yet I did not at any time abandon 

 the design. It comprehended an extensive scheme 

 of discovery. The proposed route was that by Smith's 

 Sound. My object was to complete the survey of the 

 north coasts of Greenland and Grinnell Land, and to 

 make such exj)lorations as I might find practicable in 

 the direction of the North Pole. 



My proposed base of operations was Grinnell Land, 

 which I had discovered on my former voyage, and had 

 personally traced beyond lat. 80°, far enough to sat- 

 isfy me that it was available for my design. 



Accepting the deductions of many learned physi- 

 cists that the sea about the North Pole cannot be 

 frozen, that an open area of varying extent must be 

 found within the Ice-belt which is known to invest it, 

 I desired to add to the proofs which had already been 



