ARCTIC DISCOVERY 670 to trace out Franklin's last voyage. During the first season it was unusually prosperous. Passing up Lancaster sound, he explored Wel- lington channel (then an unknown sea) to a point further N. than was reached by either Penny, De Haven, or Belcher; sailed around Cornwallis island, and wintered at Beechey island. In the spring and summer of 1846 he either navigated Bellot strait, or more prob- ably pushed through Peel sound, reaching Vic- toria strait, where he was finally beset in Sep- tember, and thus supplied the only link want- ing to complete a chain of water communica- tion between the two oceans. The skeletons found in the boat near Cape Crozier show that after the abandonment of the Erebus and Ter- ror a party attempted to return, for what pur- pose can only be conjectured. The Fox found herself free from ice on Aug. 9, and immediately made sail for home, reaching the Isle of Wight Sept. 20. See McClintock's "Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Frank- lin and his Companions" (London and Bos- ton, 1860); also "The Search for Sir John Franklin," in the "Cornhill Magazine," No. I., January, 1860 (by Capt. Allen Young). Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, a member of Kane's party, and a firm believer in the theory of the open polar sea, soon succeeded, with the aid of private subscriptions, in organizing and fit- ting out another arctic exploring expedition. With a company of only 14 men, he left Bos- ton July 6, 1860, in the schooner United States, and proceeded directly to the Greenland ports of Proven and Upernavik ; at the latter place he arrived Aug. 12, and besides adding to his crew three Danes and three Esquimaux hunters, he secured sledge dogs for the win- ter's work. Carruthers, one of the schooner's crew, died at Upernavik. Leaving port, Dr. Hayes's expedition entered Baffin bay about Aug. 20, but was so delayed by ice, among which the schooner was often becalmed, that although the party had hoped to reach some point between lat. 79 and 80, the schooner was frozen in at a point but little N. of lat. 78, in a harbor which Hayes named Port Foulke. During the winter Dr. Hayes made several sledge expeditions, but attained no important results until April 3, when, with several sledges drawn by dogs, a life boat upon an- other sledge drawn by men, and 12 of the ship's company, he started from Port Foulke to cross Smith sound to Grinnell land; for along the coast of this Hayes had determined to proceed, all progress along the E. shore of the sound being prevented by impassable glaciers. After encountering difficulties of every kind, and after sending back nearly all of the party and several sledges, with the life boat, which could be carried no further, Hayes and three of his men succeeded (May 11) in reaching Grinnell land at a point called Cape Hawks. They im- mediately turned to the north, and for several days skirted the coast, travelling on smoother ice and with less danger than before. But Hayes's companions were greatly exhausted, and he was finally compelled to leave two of them. On May 18, 1861, Dr. Hayes and his remaining companion, Knorr, who had been travelling among soft ice for several days, reached a point (lat. 81 35'. Ion. 70 300 beyond which further progress was impossible on account of rotten ice and cracks. This was the most northerly land ever reached ; and, climbing a headland, Hayes found himself standing upon what he believed to be the shores of the polar sea, which, though then encumbered with soft ice and floes, would, he felt confident, be entirely open in the summer months. To the north he saw a lofty headland, "the most northern known land upon the globe." Having no boat, Hayes was obliged to turn back ; rejoining all his companions, he reached the schooner about the 1st of June, after a wearisome journey. Without making further important explora- tions, for which the schooner had been unfitted by injuries from the ice and storms, the expedi- tion returned successfully to Boston in October, 1861. The civil war had broken out, and this led Dr. Hayes to at once abandon the project he had formed of returning immediately with a steamer to the arctic seas. In his story of the voyage ("The Open Polar Sea," New York, 1867), he declared that he had by no means given up the ultimate accomplishment of his plan. In 1860 Capt. Charles F. Hall, who had for more than ten years been deeply interested in arctic discovery, left New London, Conn., in a whale ship, which, in pursuance of his plan, landed him on the W. coast of Davis strait, whence he intended, with boat and sledge, to make further search for evidences of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his men. He lost his boat, and was obliged to confine his explora- tions within comparatively narrow limits. He made, however, an important discovery some traces of the expedition under Frobisher, 300 years before. On Sept. 30 Hall returned. In 1864 he again sailed for the arctic countries, landing, with only two Esquimaux as compan- ions, on the coast of Hudson bay. He pene- trated to the north as far as Fury and Hecla strait, journeyed into King William land, and met with much success. Besides bringing h ome many actual relics of Franklin's party, he suc- ceeded in obtaining such exact information from the Esquimaux at various points as led him to suppose that Franklin had actually ac- complished the discovery of the northwest passage before his vessels, then in winter quar- ters (at O'Reilly island, Capt. Hall believes), were abandoned by their crews. Hall seems to have finally established, by the universal tes- timony of the tribes he visited, the truth of the Esquimaux story that Franklin's men died of starvation in King William land. He did not, however, succeed in finding any records of the expedition. After spending five successive years among the Esquimaux, passing much of the time near Repulse bay, and after acquiring a thorough knowledge of their language and cus-
