CHAPTER XX.

Hayes' Attempt to reach Upernavik-Dangers of the Route-Six Miles in Three Days-Severe Storms-A Hut Constructed-Visits of the Esquimaux-Treacherous intents of the Natives-A desperate Ruse-A Narcotic Stew-Flight and Pursuit-The Brig reached at last.

N order not to interfere with the narrative of Dr. Kane's adventures, the attempted escape of the party with Dr. Hayes

in as far as their experiences are concerned has been omitted till now, their departure and return to the brig having been alone recorded.

The hope at starting was that they might reach Upernavik, the nearest Danish settlement in Greenland, a distance of about one thousand miles. Had they accomplished this they might have been able to send succour to the party remaining with Dr. Kane. They parted from the brig with a couple of boats and sledges, and such supplies as could be spared. "Before leaving," says Hayes' narrative,* "Dr. Kane

* "An Arctic Boat Journey in the Autumn of 1854." By Dr. I. I. Hayes.

Hayes' Adventures.

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called us to the cabin. In some nook or corner of the after-part locker the careful steward had stowed a couple of bottles of champagne, the existence of which was only known to the commander and himself. One of these was drawn from its hiding-place, and in broken-handled tea-cups we exchanged mutual pledges."

Their expectation was to find open water ten miles from the brig. In this they were disappointed, and they were compelled to convey their boats and provisions along the edge of the ice-foot, their progress being so slow that in one place it occupied them three days to make six miles.

When they succeeded in reaching an open space of water free from ice for three or four miles, their strength was not equal to pulling the oars, and there was no wind. Next morning a breeze arose, and they sailed gaily along until the icebergs and floes closed upon them, when they tied up to a level mass of ice. Next day the ice opened, and they sailed successfully almost to Life-boat Bay, where Kane had, in August, 1853, left a metallic life-boat, when the moving, grinding ice again shut them in. The life-boat was, however, found, and under it some supplies purposely left there by Dr. Kane. After leaving the land "the route lay over a closelyjammed pack of pieces of ice of almost every shape and size, some of them being a foot out of the water,

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A Rocky Asylum.

others ten feet: one moment they were hauling the boat up a precipice, the next letting her down over another, and all this under a feeling of insecurity, since the ice they were on might suddenly drift out to seaward. First they carried forward the boat about a hundred yards, then piece by piece the cargo and equipment, until after six hours' labour they reached the open water. But the wind was blowing a regular gale, and they had to work their way between the driving masses of the pack with the danger of being crushed. They were wet to the skin with the dashing spray, and with the thermometer at 22o the water was freezing on their clothes. After much search they found a small cove, or rather cleft in the granite cliffs of Lyttelton Island, into which they succeeded in running the boat; but they could find no protection against the wind, which swept in from the sea, and came furiously down through the rocky gorges. They clambered about in the darkness, along the rocky ledge, hunting for a lee, but no sooner had they got into some kind of shelter than the wind shifted: indeed, it seemed to blow from every quarter, and to roll down from the rocks like an avalanche." Some of the party extemporised a tent from their sail; Hayes and another, unable to bear the cold, exercised all night by walking on the ice.

After fearful exposure and great damage to the

boats, one day they reached a spot covered with greensward, a perfect oasis, compared with the surrounding desolation. They found some wild vegetables, sorrel, and cochlearia, and shot a fox, from which a supper was prepared. They remained five days ice-bound, when the floe opened, and they again sailed, hoping to reach Cape Parry. Mists and snow almost hid everything but the dark waters around them, and they had to camp on a lump of ice not over twelve feet square. Their tent was tightly closed, but do all they would, even smoking their pipes furiously, they could not raise the temperature inside over 30°. "The men told stories to each other to interrupt the monotonous chattering of their teeth." Their ice-raft broke up during the night, and nearly spilled them all in the water. When the welcome morning came, they pulled through the broken ice, and reached a low sandy beach, just in time to save themselves from the effects of a storm which broke over them with unusual fury, "the tent was nearly blown over, and had to be secured by means of heavier stones. The wind had increased to a gale, and as it went moaning about the plain, it carried up into the air great white clouds and pelted the tent with sleet and hail. The boats were nearly covered by a great drift, and the cargo was almost buried out of sight." Dr. Hayes writes: "It was not due to ourselves that we were not at

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Fearful Forebodings.

sea in that fearful storm; we knew not even where we were: we came by no will of our own; there was a Providence in it.”

After a series of experiences like those just recorded, and at a time when their provisions were reduced to two weeks' rations, their slow progress, and the unmistakable signs of approaching winter, obliged them to think of some place of shelter. A house of boulders was constructed, lighted with one small window, a piece of an old shirt greased with blubber serving for glass, one of the boat's oars and mast doing duty for rafters, and the sail for roof. The crannies of the stones were caulked with moss and sand.

Their provisions, in October, were running so short that the men had to be put on half allowance, and being unsuccessful in the hunt for walrus and seal, they attempted to appease the gnawings of hunger by collecting tripe de roche, the rock lichen, which has often been used by half-starved Arctic explorers. It, however, produced diarrhoea, and consequently weakened their already enfeebled frames. Storm after storm kept them weather-bound, and their house was nearly buried in the drifting snow. Doctor Hayes writes mournfully at this time :"Although accustomed to hardship, yet we could not feel cheerful, nor wholly forget that this cold, fireless, damp, vault-like den promised to be for a