1861.] 383 ^^-'^y^^- 



Dr. Haves was then introduced to the Society, and com- 

 municated to the members present some of the historical in- 

 cidents and scientific results of the voyage. 



Mr. President, — Gentlemen : 



I feel much honored by your invitation to attend your meeting 

 this evening, and to communicate some of the results of my late ex- 

 pedition. 



Such an invitation from the oldest and most prominent scientific 

 association in this country, imposes upon me a duty which is at once 

 peremptory, and highly gratifying to me. Yet I cannot but remem- 

 ber, that I appear before those whose studies have obtained for them 

 a merited distinction in every department of learning for the benefit of 

 which the expedition was designed. The names of many of you had 

 become illustrious, even in foreign countries, long before I was of an 

 age for the study of a profession. Scarcely had a diploma been 

 given to me as a Doctor in the Medical Art, when I sailed, in 1853, 

 with the late Dr. Kane, as surgeon of his Expedition ; and I remained 

 in that service until late in the year 1855. Although thus deprived of 

 many of the opportunities for general scientific study which would have 

 been available at home, yet the necessities of the Expedition threw 

 upon me a share of every duty, whether appertaining to the various 

 scientific observations, or to the conduct of exploring parties. Upon 

 my return to the United States, I formed the plan of another expedition. 

 There were many circumstances of discouragement, not least among 

 which was an impression which then had possession of the public 

 judgment, that any further efforts toward the North Pole must be 

 fruitless, and must involve an unjustifiable loss of life. It was only 

 after many endeavors that here and there the influences favorable to 

 my design began to aifect the community. The most important of 

 these was, of course, the sanction given to my plans by those asso- 

 ciations by whose opinions the mass of men are governed in relation 

 to scientific matters ; and it gives me pleasure that I am to-night, 

 enabled, personally, to thank you for the encouragement and aid which 

 were afibrded by your formal appointment of a committee to co-ope- 

 rate with me. 



To this approval of your Society, so widely known and respected, 

 were added that of the Academy of Natural Sciences of this city, the 

 Smithsonian Institution, the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, the Geographical Society of New York, the principal 

 scientific associations of Boston, and the private assurances of many 

 learned individuals. 



