274 GREENLAND 



tacked on to it Howgate's proposal of another dash for 

 the Pole, his instructions requiring him to send out 

 " sledging parties in the interests of exploration and 

 discovery." Further, his expedition was fitted out in 

 a way that almost invited disaster. Let one instance 

 suffice. " In speaking of this instrument," he explains, 

 " it is necessary to say that a dip-circle was especially 

 made for the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, but it 

 was by error shipped to the United States Coast Sur- 

 vey. On calling for it, when the duplicate instrument 

 ordered could not be had in time, the late Mr. Carlisle 

 Patterson, then Superintendent, promptly promised that 

 it should be sent on to me at New York. On the day 

 of my sailing, a dip-circle, carefully boxed, was received ; 

 but on opening it at St. John, an old, rusty, unreliable 

 instrument was found in the place of the new circle. 

 This resulted in unsatisfactory and incomplete observa- 

 tions at Conger, for the old circle having upright 

 standards instead of transverse ones, as in the new, but 

 one end of the needle could be read. It must always 

 be a matter of regret that this unwarrantable and un- 

 authorised substitution by some person was made, which 

 materially impaired, if not effectually destroyed, the 

 value of our two-years' dip-observations." This sort of 

 thing reduced International Polar Research to a farce, 

 and the same spirit appeared in other departments, 

 more seriously than all in the relief proceedings, which 

 were conducted in a way that could only lead to starva- 

 tion. 



In August, 1881, the Proteus, with the expedition 

 on board, made her way up Smith Sound and Kennedy 

 Channel without serious hindrance until she entered 



