e floe--A perilous journey--Saved--
Fate of the _Polaris_.

We must pass rapidly by Doctor Hayes' voyages undertaken to survey
Greenland. He fully believed in the theory of the "open Polar Sea," and
he had been a member of Kane's party. He left Boston in 1860, and
entered Baffin Bay in August of that year. After much delay from ice,
he started with sleighs across Smith's Sound to Grinnel Land. He
encountered tremendous difficulties--most of his party turned back, but
Hayes, with three men, persevered, and succeeded in reaching Grinnel
Land. He still pushed on, then with only one companion, and reached the
most northerly point attained, whence he could see water covered with
soft ice. This he states is the open Polar Sea in the summer. He saw a
headland farther north--"the most northerly land known." But having no
boat he was obliged to return to his companions, and they reached Boston
in 1861. The American Civil War prevented him from trying again for
some years, but he subsequently explored Greenland, more for pleasure
than in the interests of science, in 1869.

We now come to the voyages of Captain Charles F. Hall, which culminated
in the _Polaris_ expedition. In 1860, however, Captain Hall had made an
attempt to find some traces of the Franklin expedition; but meeting with
an accident, he returned. In 1864 he sailed again, and reached Hecla
Strait. He carried home many Franklin relics, and ascertained that Sir
John had actually discovered the North-West Passage, and established the
melancholy truth that most of Franklin's men died of starvation in King
William's Land, where their bones lay bleaching in the snowy waste.
After five years' residence amongst the Esquimaux he ascertained that
Captain Crozier, of the _Terror_ (and he believed a companion), were
living amongst the Esquimaux in 1864.

In September, 1869, Captain Hall returned to America, having discovered
the site of Frobisher's settlement three hundred years before; but it
was not until 1872 that he was enabled to start in the _Polaris_ to find
the North Pole. On the 29th of June he sailed from New York. Doctor
Bessel accompanied the ship as naturalist, and at least one member of
Kane's expedition also went. Captain Tyson, who figures in the
narrative, joined the _Polaris_ at Godhaven, and Hans, the hunter, at
Upernavik.

On the 21st of August the _Polaris_ continued her voyage, and followed
Kane's route. Captain Hall reached the spot wh