“I have never before regarded the walrus as a really formidable animal; but this contest convinces me that I have done their courage great injustice. They are full of fight; and had we not been very active and self-possessed, our boat would have been torn to pieces, and we either drowned or killed. A more fierce attack than that which they made upon us could hardly be imagined, and a more formidable-looking enemy than one of these huge monsters, with his immense tusks and bellowing throat, would be difficult to find. Next time I try them I will arm my boat’s crew with lances. The rifle is a poor reliance, and but for the oars, the herd would have been on top of us at any time.” Upon the top of the hill on the north side of the harbour a cairn was constructed, and under it Hayes deposited a brief record of the voyage. On the 11th July 1861, the ice broke up in the harbour, and the schooner was once more afloat, after ten months’ imprisonment. On the 13th July, Hayes took leave of the Esquimaux, who were sorry to see him depart. Hayes, although doubtful as to the prospect ahead, was determined not to quit the field without making another attempt to reach the west coast and endeavour to obtain some further information that might be of service in the future. He still had a vague hope that, even with his crippled vessel, some such good prospect might open before him as would justify him in remaining. He therefore held once more for Cape Isabella, but met the pack about 10 miles from the Greenland shore. He turned back and anchored between Littleton and McGary Islands. After a few days’ delay, another attempt was made, and in two days the west coast was reached near Gale Point, about 10 miles below Cape Isabella. Hayes then took a whale-boat to the cape, but found it impassable. His opinion of the situation was thus recorded at the time:— “I am fully persuaded, if there still remained a lingering doubt, of the correctness of my decision to return home, and come out next year strengthened and refitted with steam. If my impulses lead me to try conclusions once more with the ice, my judgment convinces me that it would be at the risk of everything. As well use a Hudson River steamboat for a battering-ram as this schooner, with her weakened bows, to encounter the Smith Sound ice. “I have secured the following important advantages for the future, and with these I must, perforce, rest satisfied, for the present:— “(1) I have brought my party through without sickness, and have thus shown that the Arctic winter of itself breeds neither scurvy nor discontent. “(2) I have shown that men may subsist themselves in Smith Sound independent of support from home. “(3) That a self-sustaining colony may be established at Port Foulke, and be made the basis of an extended exploration.