390 DR. HAYES' TERRIBLE BOAT TRIP 



again to our tent, and awoke on the following morning to find that the wind 

 had hauled around to the northeast, and that the clouds were breaking away. 

 By one o'clock, p. m., it was quite clear. The thermometer went up to two 

 degrees above the freezing point; the ice was giving way, and long leads 

 were opening through it, in every direction. A narrow belt of heavy floes 

 joined together by young ice, unfortunately lay close along the shore; other- 

 wise we could have launched our boats at two o'clock. To break through this 

 belt would have occupied us until night; and deeming it imprudent again to 

 trust ourselves in the darkness to an uncertain channel we concluded to 

 remain where we were, and to start fresh with the early morn. 



"The morn broke upon us bright, clear, calm, and summer-like. The 

 young ice, neither strong enough to bear nor frail enough to yield easily, 

 seemed for a time likely to baffle us; but by breaking it up with our boat- 

 hooks and poles, we finally succeeded in effecting our escape; not, however, 

 until an hour after the sun had passed the meridian. The way appeared to 

 be free toward the mainland, for which we pulled. After we had been under 

 oars a couple of hours, a light breeze sprang up from east-northeast; once 

 more our canvas was spread, and our ears were again gladdened by the 

 music of gurgling waters as the boats rushed onward through the rippled sea. 



"We struck the coast at about twenty miles above Cape Parry. Passing 

 under the north cape of Burden Bay, we were surprised to hear human voices 

 on the shore. That they were Eskimos we knew from the peculiar 'Huk! 

 Huk! Huk' — their hailing cry." 



