CHAPTER XXXIII 
THE ROUTE BY SMITH SOUND. 
KANE— HAYES— HALL— NARES— MARKHAM 
When my old messmate Admiral Sherard Osborn 
and I resolved to agitate until the Government was 
induced to dispatch another Arctic expedition, we 
selected the route of Sir Thomas Smith's Channel as the 
one most likely to afford valuable scientific results. We 
strongly deprecated a mere rush for the North Pole, as 
not only useless in itself, but also as hindering important 
geographical work. 
The Northern Sound seen by Baffin in 1616 was 
discovered by Captain Inglefield in 1852 to be a wide 
channel leading to the polar ocean, and the land on its 
western side, facing Greenland — also discovered, but not 
named, by Baffin — received the name of Ellesmere Island 
from Inglefield. He found the entrance of Smith Sound 
to be 36 miles across. His extreme northern point was 
78 0 28' 21" N. 
In 1853 the American, Dr Kane, in the little brig 
Advance of 120 tons, with a crew of 17 men, started for 
Smith Sound very poorly equipped 1 . He had some 
thought of completing the search for Franklin in this 
direction, but his main idea was to push his way as far 
north as possible in the brig until he reached the (imagi- 
nary) open polar sea. The Advance was stopped by the 
ice only nine miles north of Inglefield's most northern 
position, and there Kane was forced to winter, in a place 
which he named Rensselaer Harbour, on the east side 
of the Sound in 78 0 37' N. The coast consists of pre- 
cipitous cliffs 800 to 1200 feet high, with a belt of ice 
about 18 feet thick resting on the beach 2 . 
1 I knew Dr Kane when he served in Grinnell's relief expedition, of 
which he wrote the history. His was certainly a charming personality, 
talented, cheerful, and enthusiastic. 
2 Kane adopted the Danish name of ice-foot (Iis-fod) for this permanent 
frozen ridge or terrace. 
