104: cruise OF THE NEPTUNE 
eight others of the crew left the ship with the intention of reach- 
ing the Danish settlement of Upernivik; they returned in 
December, nearly dead of starvation and cold. The vessel was 
formally abandoned on the 20th of May following, and on the 
17th of June the boats were launched in open water near Cape 
Alexander. Cape York was doubled on the 21st of July, and 
the greatly reduced party reached Upernivik on the 6th of 
August. 
\ Dr. I. I. Hayes was the next to attempt to reach the supposed 
open sea, by way of Smith sound. He left Boston, in the 
schooner United States, on the 7th of July, 1860, and on the 
12th of August reached Upernivik, where he added six natives 
to his crew, bringing the total number up to twenty-one. Meet- 
ing with a succession of northerly gales off Cape Alexander, 
Hayes was obliged to winter south of Littleton island, in Foulke 
fiord, in latitude 78 18' N. He first tried to explore the 
Greenland coast, but was obliged to abandon the attempt on 
account of the very rough ice. He then determined to cross 
Kane basin and follow the west coast northward. Thirty-eight 
days were occupied in crossing the seventy miles between the 
ship and Cape Hawkes, after which he claims that six days' tra- 
vel brought him to Cape Lieber, situated 170 miles beyond 
Cape Hawkes; this is evidently a mistake. The ship was 
released on the 10th of July, and the passage north being barred 
by solid ice, Hayes crossed to the west side, and explored the 
coast southward from Cape Sabine to Cape Isabella before 
returning home. He was thus making good the claim of being 
the first white man to tread the shores of Ellesmere island. 
The next expedition to Smith sound was commanded by 
charles F. Hall, in the Polaris. Hall had previously spent two 
years among the natives at Frobisher bay, the charting of which 
is due to his efforts. On his return from this first trip he went, 
in a Whaler, to Roes Welcome, where he again lived with and 
like the natives, in an attempt to recover the logs and other 
