CHAPTER XL. 



DR. HAYES' TERRIBLE BOAT TRIP. 



After contemplating the comparative comfort and pleasure experienced 

 by Nansen and his men, the reader is again directed to the grim horrors of 

 Arctic travel, which after all are the characteristics features, modern methods 

 notwithstanding. For peril and the exhibition of fortitude, no history sur- 

 passes that of Dr. Kane, whose expedition was partly described in an earlier 

 chapter One of the most striking features of that expedition was a boat 

 trip undertaken by a party under Dr. Isaac Hayes, surgeon of the Advance, 

 Kane's ship. The boat journey was for the purpose of getting aid for the 

 men on board the Advance, which was fast in the ice in the region of lati- 

 tude 78. 



The boat journey began in August, 1854, on a small craft called the 

 Hope, on which a sail had been rigged. The little vessel made good progress 

 after rounding Cape Hatherton, near Lyttleton Island, and the crew were 

 in fine spirits, "when," says Dr. Hayes, "the look-out cried, 'ice ahead!' 

 There it was, sure enough, about a mile before us — a long, white line, against 

 which the surf was breaking. 



"We ran down within a quarter of a mile of it, hoping all the time that 

 we should find a lead; but no opening could anywhere be seen. The pack 

 was jammed tight together, and against the southern shore of the bay; and 

 stretching off to the southwest, it seemed to block up the channel between 

 Lyttleton Island and the main land. 



"The course of the boat was changed to the west, and, although the wind 

 was increasing, we determined to run outside the island and endeavor to 

 reach the cove from the south ; but here, again, we were headed off ; a tongue 

 of the pack stretched up to the north as far as we could see. To haul close 

 on the wind and run up the edge of the ice was out of the question. With a 

 less heavily laden boat this could easily have been accomplished ; but already 

 we were shipping much water, with the wind on the quarter. Two points 

 more around must swamp us. A sea breaking over the gunwale convinced 

 us of the danger of the attempt, and again the boat was headed south. 



379 



