560 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pedition ; that that was a mere geographical feat, to which necessarily 

 great eclat would be attached ; but that the real object of such an 

 expedition was to explore the arctic region in every direction as far 

 as possible, to obtain scientific information in a quarter of the globe 

 where it was of the highest interest not only as respects the past 

 physical history of the earth, but to enable us to unravel phenomena 

 and obtain a knowledge of physical laws affecting its present condi- 

 tion which are of high scientific value, or, to express it in a popidar 

 form, of the greatest practical importance. This object has been to 

 a considerable degree advanced by the English expedition. The 

 Alert not only attained the highest latitude 82 24' ever reached 

 by a vessel, and the sledge-expeditions the farthest northern point 

 attained by man 83 20' 26" north latitude but the expedition, in 

 an unknown region, discovered and traced a line of coast extend- 

 ing over nearly fifty degrees of longitude, ascertained to a consider- 

 able extent the nature of the Polar Sea bordering this newly-discov- 

 ered coast, and collected a large amount of scientific information 

 in the examination of both land and sea. A line of coast was ex- 

 plored 230 miles west of the spot where the Alert wintered 90 miles 

 of which trends northwesterly to Cape Columbia, the extreme northern 

 cape, 83 7' north latitude, 70 30' west longitude ; thence westward 

 for 60 miles to 79 west longitude, and from there gradually south to 

 82 16' north latitude and 83 33' west longitude, with no indication 

 of land extending from there either westward or northward. The 

 northeast and northern coast of Greenland was traced from Polaris 

 Bay to a point east of Mount May in 80 40' west longitude, the far- 

 thest northern land seen in the expedition being in 82 54' north lati- 

 tude and 48 33' west longitude (Cape Britannia and Mount Albert), 

 and the Greenland coast was found to run from Mount May, in a 

 southeasterly direction, to below the eighty-second parallel of north 

 latitude ; Lady Franklin's Bay, and Petermann's Fiord and its vicinity, 

 were explored, to which must be added magnetic and meteorological 

 and other scientific observations, and the labors of the naturalist, 

 carried on in the winter, with the thermometer ranging at one time 

 at 73 below zero. 



"Being farther north than any former expedition, they passed an 

 unparalleled arctic winter of one hundred and forty-two days nearly 

 five months without the light and heat of the sun, and in the severest 

 cold yet known. In the sledge-expedition of Commander Markham, 

 in the autumn of 1875, to Cape Joseph Henry, the fall of snow was 

 so enormous that the men had to draw their sledges through it up to 

 their knees, and frequently up to their waists, so that, out of a party 

 of twenty-four, twelve were severely frost-bitten, and three suffered 

 amputation. 



"In an attempt to communicate by a sledge-party with the Discov- 

 ery, that vessel having wintered below in Robeson Channel, Christian 



