CHAPTER XII Dr. Hayes's expedition. Winter quarters at Port Foulke. -Greenland coast.-Death of Sonntag.- Dr. Hayes's journey.-Attempt to cross Smith Sound. Hayes's farthest. -"Open Polar Sea." Homeward bound. IN 1860, Dr. Hayes, who had accompanied the second Grinnell expedition and rendered much valuable service to Dr. Kane and his party, once more sailed from America for the purpose of completing the survey of the north coasts of Greenland and Grinnell Land and to make such explorations as he might find practicable in the direction of the North Pole. "My proposed base of operations," writes Dr. Hayes, "was Grinnell Land, which I had discovered on my former voyage, and had personally traced beyond latitude 80°, far enough to satisfy that it was available for my design." On the morning of July 8, 1860, the United States was fairly on her way, and, by July 30, Dr. Hayes had the satisfaction of being once more within the Arctic Circle. "We had some rough handling in Davis' Strait," he writes. "Once I thought we had surely come ingloriously to grief. We were running before the wind and fighting a wretched cross-sea under reefed fore and mainsail and jib, when the fore-rail was carried away; - down came everything to the deck; and there was left not a stitch of canvas on the schooner but the lumbering mainsail. It was a miracle that we did not broach to and go to the bottom. Nothing saved us but a steady hand at the helm." After several narrow escapes in the ice field, the United States was at length compelled to take up her winter quarters at Port Foulke, on the Greenland coast, about twenty miles to the south of Rensselaer harbour. An abundant commissariat, amply supplied by fresh meat, kept up the general health of the party during the long night, and they escaped scurvy, which had proved so fatal to Dr. Kane's crew. A great catastrophe was the death by freezing of Sonntag, the astronomer, who had been a valuable member of Dr. Kane's expedition, and a much-beloved friend of Dr. Hayes. Accompanied by Hans Hendrik, he had started on a sledge journey to the Etah Eskimo. On February 1, Dr. Hayes writes: "Hans has given me the story of his journey, and I sit down to record it with very painful emotions. The travellers rounded Cape Alexander without difficulty, finding the ice solid; they did not halt until they had reached Sutherland Island, where they built a snow hut and rested for a few hours. Continuing thence down the coast, they sought the Esquimaux at Sorfalik without success. The native hut at that place being in ruins, they made for their shelter another house of snow; and, after being well rested, they set out directly for Northumberland Island, having concluded that it was useless to seek longer for natives on the north side of the Sound. They had proceeded on their course about four or five miles as nearly as I can judge from Hans' description, when Sonntag, growing a little chilled, sprang off the sledge and ran ahead of the dogs to warm himself with the exercise. The tangling of a trace obliging Hans to halt the team for a few minutes, he fell some distance behind, and was hurrying to catch up, when he suddenly observed Sonntag sinking. He had come upon the thin ice, covering a recently open tide-crack, and, probably not observing his footing, he.stepped upon it unawares. Hans hastened to his rescue, and aided him out of the water, and then turned back for the shelter which they had recently abandoned. A light wind was blowing at the time from the northeast, and this, according to Hans, caused Sonntag to seek the hut without stopping to change his wet clothing. At first he ran beside the sledge, and thus guarded against danger; but after a while he rode, and when they halted at Sorfalik, Hans discovered that his companion was stiff and speechless. Assisting him into the hut with all possible despatch, Hans states that he removed the wet and frozen clothing, and placed Sonntag in the sleeping-bag. He next gave him some brandy which he found in a flask on the sledge; and, having tightly closed the hut, he lighted the alcohol lamp, for the double purpose of elevating the temperature and making some coffee; but all of his efforts were unavailing, and, after remaining for nearly a day unconscious, Sonntag died. He did not speak after reaching the hut, and left no message of any kind. After closing up the mouth of the hut, so that the body might not be disturbed by bears or foxes, Hans again set out southward, and reached Northumberland Island without inconvenience." Early in April, 1861, Dr. Hayes left the ship "to plunge into the wilderness." Having previously ascertained that an advance along the Greenland shore was utterly impossible, he resolved to cross the sound, and to try his fortunes along the coast of Grinnell Land. "By winding to the right and left," he writes, "and by occasionally retracing our steps, we managed to get over the first few miles without much embarrassment, but further on the track was rough, past description. I can compare it to nothing but a promiscuous accumulation of rocks piled up over a vast plain in great heaps and endless ridges. The interstices between these closely accumulated ice-masses are filled up to some extent with drifted snow." It is not surprising that after such difficult travel, at the end of twenty-five days they had not yet reached halfway across the sound. |