None of these, however, reached much farther north than 75 deg..
Only Smith Sound promised to lead north of the 80th parallel.

This had been discovered as early as 1616 by Baffin, whose farthest north was only exceeded by forty miles, in 1852, by Inglefield in the _Isabel_, one of the ships despatched in search of Franklin.
He was followed up by Kane in the _Advance_, fitted out in 1853 by the munificence of two American citizens, Grinnell and Peabody.

Kane worked his way right through Smith Sound and Robeson Channel into the sea named after him.

For two years he continued investigating Grinnell Land and the adjacent shores of Greenland.

Subsequent investigations by Hayes in 1860, and Hall ten years later, kept alive the interest in Smith Sound and its neighbourhood; and in 1873 three ships were despatched under Captain (afterwards Sir George) Nares, who nearly completed the survey of Grinnell Land, and one of his lieutenants, Pelham Aldrich, succeeded in reaching 82.48 deg.