ran to the northward before a strong gale, and about noon reached latitude 82° 24′ N., the highest latitude ever attained by any vessel. The ship had been running at the rate of at least nine knots; she tried to reach President's Land, reported by the Polaris, but near one o'clock she was suddenly stopped by an impenetrable pack. Finding that the ebb-tide was setting towards the northwest along the land, and that the ice moved towards the shore, the Alert, which meanwhile had been moored to some grounded pack near Cape Sheridan, was taken to a more secure place. There, in latitude 82° 25' N., longitude 61° 30′ W., she was compelled to winter. Markham and Lieut. Pelham Aldrich had been sent out to examine a bay about eight miles to the westward, which promised to be a good harbor; but it was unapproachable on account of stranded ice. The anchorage of the Alert was fully as unsafe as that of the Polaris; her only protection consisted in a number of floe-bergs grounded at a distance of a couple of hundred yards from the shore, and more than once she was seriously imperilled. Fortunately, she experienced only one of those heavy northeast winds, which, as a rule during the winter months, form the greater percentage of winds in these high latitudes, and the rise and fall of the tide was very slight, amounting to not more than about 36 inches, even at time of spring-tide.

After the newly-formed ice was strong enough, the provisions and stores were dragged on shore, and several small sledge-parties and a boat were sent out to reconnoitre the coast and to establish a depot. The coast was found not to extend as far north as stated by the Polaris; and the land reported by two of the Polaris' crew and named President's Land could not be seen. "The sky being fairly clear," Captain Nares says, "this was the first day on which we were able to pronounce decidedly concerning the northern land reported to exist by the Polaris. After a constant watch and carefully noting the movements of the darkened patches, I was now with much reluctance forced to admit that no land existed to the northward for a very considerable distance. As seen through the light haze, the dark reflection of the sky above the detached pools of water in the offing, in strong contrast by the side of the light reflected from the close ice, which in a great measure is similar to the bright glare reflected from a large sand flat, creates a very decided appearance of land where there is a mirage; indeed sufficiently so as to deceive many of us when so anxiously expecting and hoping to see it.”*

*Nature, 1876, p. 33.

On page 383 I have stated the conditions under which this land was sighted. It was seen only by Hermann Siemens and Robert Krueger, two of our most trustworthy and experienced seamen; when Mr. Meyer proceeded to Newman's Bay a few days later, it was not visible, but he noticed the same dark land-cloud which I have described, and which apparently had not changed its position. The only explanation I can offer is that the men applied the variation of the compass in the wrong direction, and that the land they sighted is actually a portion of the high northern coast of Greenland; for, they told me at the time of their return that the distant land was so plain in view that they could discern its deep ravines and the various snow-patches covering the mountains. Unfortunately the surveys of the expedition were lost on the ice, and the chart drawn after the return of the party could therefore be only an approximation. Although this chart was published by the United States Hydrographic Office, this office can not be held responsible for its shortcomings; for, the details of the west coast-the work of the Secretary of the Navy and his friends—were put in at his own private office at the Navy Department, to the great disgust of the late Rear-Admiral Wyman, who at that time was the Hydrographer of the Navy. In consulting the brief diary of current events, which I am in the habit of keeping, I find how bitterly he complained one morning "to have to put such stuff on the chart." He was then coming from the old Navy Department, holding a proof of the chart rolled up in his hand. A comparison of the Polaris chart with the chart published by the Admiralty will easily convince us that the Army Fjord of the American chart can only be meant to represent the bay between Cape Sheridan and Cape Joseph Henry. Every member of the expedition was convinced at the time that the delineation of the coast of Grinnell Land as given by Hayes was utterly erroneous, but owing to the loss of our material we were not justified in making any alterations, although most of us were positive that Hayes could not have been north of the 80th parallel. To satisfy our doubts we longed to cross to Lady Franklin Bay to examine the cairn which Hayes claimed to have erected on Cape Lieber; but, the ice being in constant motion, we were unable to do so. The English expedition did not find it, and, as we shall subsequently see, Greely and his party also looked for it in vain. If there, it could not have escaped detection, even though partly demolished, for the traces of a cairn are not easily obliterated.

We shall now return to the Alert, whose commander, on the 25th

of September, sent Markham on a sledge journey to the north to establish a depot of provisions as far in advance to the northwestward as possible. Markham had three sledges, two of which were respectively commanded by Lieutenants Parr and May. Four days before his leaving the vessel, Lieutenant Aldrich had started with dogsledges, provisioned for four days, to pioneer the road around Cape Joseph Henry for the main party. He returned on the 5th of October, after an absence of thirteen days. From the summit of a mountain about 2000 feet high, in latitude 82° 48′ N., he could trace the coast-line for a distance of sixty miles to the northwestward to latitude 83° 7' N. Markham returned on the 14th, having succeeded in establishing his depot in latitude 82° 44′ N., and in sighting land nearly two miles further north. He had thereby surpassed the latitude reached by Parry forty-eight years ago, the highest latitude theretofore attained. Another party, sent out under Lieutenant Rawson on the 2d, to communicate with the Discovery, returned after an absence of ten days, without having accomplished its object. The ice was simply impassable.

On the 11th of October the sun had departed, and by the 26th the ship was completely housed in. On shore, the magnetic and other observatories were erected, and soon afterwards the officers in charge of the different scientific departments were hard at work. A school for the benefit of the crew was established; there were weekly theatricals, and the commander and his officers delivered weekly lectures on various topics that might be of interest or use to the men.

When the year 1875 drew to a close, diligent preparations were made for the sledging campaign to take place during the forthcoming spring. Contrary to the experience of the Polaris, the ice in the channel became stationary towards the middle of November; the last pools of open water seen off Cape Rawson disappeared towards the 20th, and no movement in the ice occurred during the winter. Merely a few tidal cracks outside the grounded floe-bergs could be noticed, and their width seldom exceeded a couple of feet, and this only at the time of spring tides.

The last bird seen, before darkness set in, was a snowy owl; this was on the 2d of October. Animal life was scarce, "a few eider ducks, a family party of longtailed ducks, a few turnstones, a single dovekey and a hare,"* were the only vertebrates seen near

* Feilden, Notes from an Arctic Journal, p. 44.

Floeberg Beach in 1875, if we except some specimens of charr, a small land-locked salmon. During the sledge-journeys made in the course of autumn, Markham came across four ptarmigan; a snow bunting was noticed in latitude 82° 35′ N., on the 14th of September, and the tracks of foxes, lemmings, and ermines were discovered, but not the animals themselves. In latitude 82° 33′ N., Feilden found the skeleton of a musk-ox.

On March 1 the sun returned after an absence of one hundred and forty-two days. Captain Nares, desirous of communicating with the Discovery, after the futile attempt made during the previous autumn, dispatched on the 12th Mr. Le Clere Egerton in charge of a dog-sledge. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Rawson, the officer of the Discovery who had left his vessel when the two ships parted company; the third member of the travelling party was Christian Petersen, the interpreter, who in the same capacity had shared the fortunes of Kane. On the second day out Petersen was taken sick. The party pitched tent, and while busy in preparing supper and attending the dogs, the two officers sent Petersen inside to shift his foot-gear and to get into his sleepingbag. He neglected, however, to change his stockings, and had his feet severely frost-bitten, and his face and hands had suffered likewise. As it was impossible to keep him warm, they made a burrow in a snow-bank, and, carrying him thither, they tried to warm him by the heat of their own bodies. The condition of the patient became so critical that he had to be taken back to the vessel. Subsequently, both of his feet were amputated, and about two months later he succumbed to his sufferings. Egerton and Rawson, who had also been severely frost-bitten, renewed their attempt on the 20th of March, accompanied by two seamen; fully six days were, however, occupied in accomplishing the short distance that lay between the two vessels.

On April 3, fifty-three officers and men-all in the most perfect health-left Floeberg Beach with seven sledges. Markham, seconded by Lieutenant Parr, with two boats equipped for an absence of seventy days, was to force his way to the northward on the ice, to reach as high a latitude as possible. They were accompanied by three sledgecrews, who were to follow them as long as the state of their provi sions would permit. Lieutenant Aldrich, assisted by a crew under Lieutenant Gifford, had orders to explore the shores of Grant Land towards the north and west.

On the roth of April, Rawson and Egerton, who had returned from their trip to the Discovery the day after the seven sledges had left, started with a light sledge to mark a convenient road across Robeson Channel for the sledges of the Discovery, which were to explore the north coast of Greenland under Lieutenant Beaumont. Accompanied by Rawson, who had meanwhile picked a road, and by Dr. Coppinger, Beaumont left on the 20th of April. Three days later, Captain Stephenson arrived at Floeberg Beach from Discovery Harbor, and the two commanders consulted as to further steps to be taken. The crew of the Discovery had been well during the whole winter, and the temperature experienced had been almost as low as that registered by the Alert. Early in March the minimum temperature at Discovery Bay was 70.5°, and that at Floeberg Beach even 73-7° below zero. "The Alert's minimum temperature for twenty-four hours," according to Captain Nares, "was 70.31° below zero, the Discovery's minimum temperature for twenty-four hours was 67.0° below zero. The Discovery experienced a mean temperature for seven consecutive days of 58.17° ditto. The Alert experienced a mean temperature for thirteen days of 58.9° ditto; and for five days and nine hours of 66.29°. During February, mercury remained frozen for fifteen consecutive days; a southwesterly gale, lasting four days, then brought warmer weather; immediately the wind fell, cold weather returned, and the mercury remained frozen for a further period of fifteen days."* Until the latter part of May, sledge-parties were constantly coming and going to keep up communications and to establish depots of provisions. Lieutenant Archer had explored Lady Franklin Bay, and found it to be a large fjord of some sixty miles in length, with valleys filled by glaciers; while Lieutenant Fulford and Dr. Coppinger had been examining Petermann Fjord.

On the morning of June 3, Lieutenant Parr arrived at Floeberg Beach with the distressing intelligence that Markham's party was suffering from scurvy. They had reached latitude 83° 20′ 26′′ N., the highest latitude ever attained; they had struggled against natural obstacles unparalleled in the history of Arctic exploration, and had returned to Cape Joseph Henry. Captain Nares at once organized a relief-party headed by himself, which left towards midnight. Although Lieutenant May and Dr. Moss, in company with a seaman, made a forced march, they were too late to save the life of George Porter, Gunner, R. M. A., who had expired a few hours previous to their arrival.

*Nature, 1876, p. 35.