1861.] 385 [Hayes. 



above the water, and was never dry. After touching at Proven and 

 Upernavik, we reached, on the 21st of August, Tessuissak, the most 

 northern of the Danish stations, in latitude 73° 40'. At all of these 

 places we were kindly received, and the officials furnished me with 

 every facility in their power for procuring the requisite furs and dogs 

 for sledge travelling. 



Our route lay thence northward through Melville Bay, the general 

 track of the whalers. Beyond the parallel of the Carey Islands, near 

 which the whalers annually pass, and thence to Smith Strait, our 

 track was the same as that of Dr. Kane. The distance from the 

 northern limit of the whale fishery to Smith Strait, you will perceive, 

 is not great; and with a fair wind we ran it in a few hours. The 

 chief interest of our voyage commences, therefore, on the 26th of Au- 

 gust, on which day we were a little to the northward of the position 

 of Baffin in 1616, and Boss in 1818, twenty miles south of Cape 

 Alexander, the entering cape on the Greenland side of Smith 

 Strait. 



The Strait was entered on the 27th of August; but we were un- 

 fortunate in meeting near its mouth an ice-pack of extraordinary 

 thickness, through which no passage could be effected. This pack 

 trended off to the south and west, and appeared to adhere to the 

 western coast. Our efforts to find a navigable lead were interrupted 

 by a heavy gale, which broke suddenly upon us, and drove us out of 

 the Strait. The gale continued with great force for three days, 

 during which we were a second time driven out of the Strait, and, 

 having at length sustained serious damage, we made the land and an- 

 chored. 



At that place I went on shore, and from an elevation of twelve 

 hundred feet, obtained a view to the west and north. The ice was 

 everywhere closely packed and heavy. On the following day, we 

 were blown from our anchorage, and were much damaged against 

 some icebergs which had drifted in with the current. It was as 

 late as the 1st of September that we again entered the Strait, again 

 to be blown out and crippled by a sudden return of the gale. It 

 was not until the evening of September 2d that we effected a per- 

 manent lodgement in the Strait. Failing to find an opening toward 

 the west shore, I determined to seek one higher up near Cape Ha- 

 therton ; but, when among the ice off Littleton Island, the schooner 

 became '' beset,'' the iron sheathing on the bows and the cutwater 

 was carried away, and the rudder was rendered useless. After some 

 hours we reached a place of safety and anchored. We put to sea 



