68 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



arrested. Our course was made directly for a con- 

 spicuous headland bounding the bay to the northward, 

 over a strip of old ice lining the shore. This headland 

 seemed to be about 20 miles from us, or near latitude 

 82°, and I was very desirous of reaching it; but, un- 

 happily, the old ice came suddenly to an end, and after 

 scrambling over the fringe of hummocks which margined 

 it, we found ourselves upon ice of the late winter. The 

 unerring instinct of the dogs warned us of approaching 

 danger. They were observed for some time to be 

 moving with unusual caution, and finally they scattered 

 to right and left, and refused to proceed farther. This 

 behaviour of the dogs was too familiar to me to leave 

 any doubt as to its meaning ; and moving forward in 

 advance, I quickly perceived that the ice was rotten and 

 unsafe. Thinking that this might be merely a local 

 circumstance, resulting from some peculiarity of the 

 current, we doubled back upon the old floe and made 

 another trial farther to the eastward. Walking now in 

 advance of the dogs, they were inspired with greater 

 courage. I had not proceeded far when I found the ice 

 again giving way under the staff with which I sounded 

 its strength, and again we turned back and sought a 

 more eastern passage. 



"Two hours consumed in efforts of this kind, during 

 which we had worked about 4 miles out to sea, convinced 

 me that the ice outside the bay was wholly impassable. 11 



An attempt to cross farther up the bay also proved 

 a failure, and by walking a few miles along the shore 

 Hayes believed he saw the head of the bay about 20 miles 

 distant. Next day he climbed to the top of a cliff supposed 

 to be about 800 feet above the level of the sea. 



"The view which I had from this elevation furnished 

 a solution of the cause of my progress being arrested on 

 the previous day. 



