104 CKUISE 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 



