I. I. Hayes on the Passage to the North Pole. 389 
rters at Rensselaer Bay, in latitude 78° 37’. 
S , the winter should be passed in prepa- 
tation, and upon the opening of spring, or immediately upon the 
Grinnell Land as possible. According to the observations of 
one of Dr. Kane’s exploring parties (Wm. Morton and Hans 
Christian) this land extends, by a rude estimate, at least to lati- 
tude 82° 30’. A light boat should follow the provision stores, 
| and properly mounted upon runners it could be readily trans- 
by its crew. In the mean time the water would advance 
m the north, eating away the polar margin of the ice belt; 
| and J conjecture that by the middle of May it will be found be- 
tween the 81st and 82d parallel, or about 500 miles from the 
€. Morton reports the water one month later in the season 
at latitude 80° 20’. To make this distance in boats is easily 
practicable. 
The advantages possessed by this route over that of Parry will 
d be Teadily seen. We have land as a basis of operations, extend- 
‘lg at least to 82° 30’, serving not only as a sure foundation for 
depot stations, but checking the equatorial drift of the ar 
a. up of the ice,—thus at once obviating Parry’s chief diffi- 
tof t Dy water will be found within and to the northward 
of Kenn y channel every summer, I have no doubt; and as the 
Season advances, the open water will continue to advance to the 
age the season: for I take it to be now a well established fact 
that the Arctic Ocean has within it an open sea in summer; the 
- _" during these the indications are in fayor of an affirmative 
Ypothesis, But this last need not be considered in any scheme 
fg. Open water during 
gust and September. On the 21st of June, Morton met the 
water so low as latitude 80° 20’, and this was a season not 
