28 NEW LAND. 



but things did not look very hopeful for our advance. The sea 

 was full of great masses of polar ice drifting south. Nevertheless, 

 we continued our way along the coast of Greenland, but as the ice 

 lay immovable close in to land, and a breeze began to blow from 

 the south, we were obliged to turn back on the night of August 17. 



In doing this, we passed Lifeboat Cove, where the American 

 steamer ' Polaris,' with Hall's expedition, was stranded in a sinking 

 condition on October 16, 1872, with fourteen men on board ; the 

 rest of the members, consisting of twelve men, two women, 

 and five children, had been left on the ice the day before. The 

 vessel had suffered much from pressure, so that most of the pro- 

 visions, clothing, boats, etc., had been brought out on to the 

 ice. Between nine and ten in the evening, while all were busy 

 there, the ship's moorings suddenly gave, and she was carried 

 away by the strong wind that was blowing at the time. All 

 through the winter these people drifted about on an ice-floe, 

 suffering great want and hardship. With their scanty store of pro- 

 visions, their prospects would have been hopeless had it not been 

 that two Eskimo, Joe and Hans Hendrick, were on the floe with 

 their kayaks. They harpooned seals, and thus kept the whole 

 party alive until April 30, when they were picked up near New- 

 foundland. They had then drifted from lat. 78 30' K, long. 

 73 W. to about lat. 53 30' K, long. 55 W. In the mean time, 

 the fourteen who were carried away in the 'Polaris ' wintered in 

 Lifeboat Cove. They built two boats out of the woodwork of the 

 vessel, in which they rowed southwards along the coast of Green- 

 land. On June 23 they were picked up by a whaler in Melville Bay. 



When we were abreast of Littleton Island, we steered across 

 to Ellesmere Land, and kept along its coast northwards ; but just 

 north of Cape Sabine, between Cocked Hat Island and Pirn Island, 

 we were stopped by impenetrable masses of ice, and were obliged to 

 anchor. A stiff breeze from the south prevented us from rowing 

 to land until a little after midnight on the night of August 18. 

 We made an excursion eastwards along the shore of Pirn Island 

 to look for Greely's camping-ground, Camp Clay ; but as we had 

 found no trace of it after an hour's tramp we returned on board 

 again. 



