CHAPTER III 



EXPEDITION COMMANDED BY DR. HAYES 



IN 1860-61 



The object of Dr. Hayes" 1 expedition may be given in his 

 own words : — 



" The plan of the enterprise first suggested itself to me 

 while acting as surgeon of the expedition commanded by 

 the late Dr. E. K. Kane, of the United States Navy. 

 Although its execution did not appear feasible at the 

 period of my return from that voyage in October 1855, 

 yet I did not at any time abandon the design. It com- 

 prehended an extensive scheme of discovery. The pro- 

 posed route was that by Smith Sound. My object was 

 to complete the survey of the north coasts of Greenland 

 and Grinnell Land, and to make such explorations as I 

 might find practicable in the direction of the North Pole. 



" My proposed base of operations was Grinnell Land, 

 which I had discovered on mv former voyage, and had 

 personally traced beyond latitude 80°, far enough to 

 satisfy me that it was available for my design. 



" Accepting the deductions of many learned physicists 

 that the sea about the North Pole cannot be frozen, that 

 an open area of varying extent must be found within the 

 Ice-belt which is known to invest it, I desired to add to 

 the proofs which had already been accumulated by the 

 early Dutch and English vovagers, and, more recently, by 

 the researches of Scorcsbv. Wrangel, and Parry, and still 



later by Dr. Kane's expedition. 



5° 



