some place of refuge, some hope of emancipation from
the thraldom of the ice. The second winter all of the brig except the
hull, which served for shelter, was burned for fuel; two men had died, and
many were sick of scurvy, the sledge dogs were all dead, and the end of
the provisions was in sight. In May, 1855, a retreat in open boats,
covering eighty-five days and over fifty miles of open sea, brought the
survivors to safety.

When men have looked into the jaws of death, it might be thought they
would strenuously avoid such another view. But there is an Arctic fever as
well as an Arctic chill, and, once in the blood, it drags its victim
irresistibly to the frozen North, until perhaps he lays his bones among
the icebergs, cured of all fevers forever. And so, a year or two after the
narrow escape of Dr. Kane, the surgeon of his expedition, Dr. Isaac I.
Hayes, was hard at work fitting out an expedition of which he was to be
commander, to return to Baffin's Bay and Smith sound, and if possible,
fight its way into that open sea, which Dr. Hayes long contended
surrounded the North Pole. No man in the Kane expedition had encountered
greater perils, or withstood more cruel suffering than Dr. Hayes. A boat
trip which he made in search of succor, has passed into Arctic history as
one of the most desperate expedients ever adopted by starving men. But at
the first opportunity he returned again to the scenes of his peril and his
pain. His expedition, though conducted with spirit and determination, was
not of great scientific value, as he was greatly handicapped in his
observations by the death of his astronomer, who slipped through thin ice
into the sea, and froze to death in his water-soaked garments.

[Illustration: "THE TREACHEROUS ICE-PACK"]

A most extraordinary record of daring and suffering in Arctic exploration
was made by Charles F. Hall, to whom I have already referred. Beginning
life as an engraver in Cincinnati, he became engrossed in the study of
Arctic problems, as the result of reading the stories of the early
navigators. Every book bearing on the subject in the library of his
native city, was eagerly read, and his enthusiasm infected some of the
wealthy citizens, who gathered for his use a very considerable collection
of volumes. Mastering all the literature of the Arctic, he determined to
undertake himself the arduous work of the explorer. Taking passage on a
whaler, he spent several years among the Esquimaux, liv