RESULTS OF THE ENGLISH ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



409 



and the men were kept constantly amused and 

 interested by schools, lectures, theatricals, and 

 other entertainments. Special care was taken 

 that the men took daily exercise, and lime-juice 

 was not only regularly issued, but all the men 

 were obliged to drink the daily allowance in pres- 

 ence of an officer. In this respect the expedition 

 of 1875— "76 made a considerable addition to the 

 usual precautions against scurvy. For instance, 

 in the expedition in which we served, and in most 

 others, the lime-juice was merely served out to 

 the messes, and the men drank it or not, in their 

 own messes, as they pleased. But in the Alert 

 and Discovery special and unusual care was taken 

 that every soul on board actually drank his daily 

 allowance of lime-juice, and that the full amount 

 of daily exercise was taken. We dwell particular-' 

 ly upon these facts because, with reference to the 

 terrible outbreak of disease in the spring, there 

 has been much very disgraceful misrepresentation. 

 The true cause of scurvy is the absence of fresh 

 food, with such predisposing causes added as long 

 darkness, foul air, intense cold, and damp. All ex- 

 peditions have been exposed to these influences. 

 The sole difference is that the men of the late ex- 

 pedition were exposed to them for a much longer 

 time than any other. The sun was absent for one 

 hundred and forty-two days, instead of ninety- 

 four days. In the case of former expeditions, 

 which sent out sledging-parties for long periods, 

 there was never total darkness at noon. In the 

 Alert there was greater darkness during the 

 whole time from November 6th to February 5th 

 than there was on the darkest day with former 

 expeditions. It was this difference which caused 

 the outbreak of scurvy. But it could not be fore- 

 seen. Apparently the long darkness was passed 

 through without deterioration, and, when the sun 

 returned, every soul seemed to be full of life and 

 energy; and all undoubtedly were influenced by 

 the determination to do all that resolute men 

 could do, and to achieve the most complete meas- 

 ure of success that was possible with the means 

 at their disposal. 



The crowning work of an arctic expedition 

 must always be achieved by means of sledge-trav- 

 eling in the spring. By this method alone can an 

 unknown arctic coast-line be satisfactorily and 

 exhaustively explored. The system of arctic 

 sledge-traveling was adopted in the searches for 

 Sir John Franklin, and was elaborated and per- 

 fected by Sir Leopold McClintock. All the de- 

 tails of equipment, and the scale of diet for the 

 traveling-parties of the late expedition, were in 

 exact accordance with the results of McClintock's 



long experience ; based on the numerous extended 

 journeys over the ice, which were made by that 

 highest of all arctic authorities and his comrades 

 who served with him in the search expeditions. 



The details were studied and elaborated with 

 great care by the officers of the Alert and Dis- 

 covery, and the following slight alterations were 

 made : There was a reduction in the weights to 

 be dragged on first leaving the ship, as compared 

 with those adopted by McClintock in 1853, and a 

 very considerable reduction when compared with 

 Sir Edward Parry's weights in 1827. A reduc- 

 tion was also made in the allowance of rum, and 

 an increase in the allowance of tea ; and tea was 

 substituted for rum for the midnight meal. Lime- 

 juice had never been given as a daily ration to 

 sledge-travelers in any previous expedition, ex- 

 cept in the case of Sir James Ross, in 1849, 

 whose party suffered from scurvy. But special 

 care was taken in this respect by Sir George 

 Nares, and all sledges which were sent away after 

 the thaw, when it became possible to use it, were 

 supplied with regular rations of lime-juice. In 

 all other respects the equipment and scale of diet 

 of the late expedition's traveling-parties were 

 identical with those adopted by McClintock and 

 other old arctic officers, and which long experi- 

 rence had proved to be best. 



Lime-juice was not sent with the sledges dur- 

 ing March, April, and May, for the very sufficient 

 reason that it could not have been used in those 

 months, in the form in which it was supplied 

 to the expedition, namely liquid, in bottles and 

 jars. During the intense cold of those months, 

 a bottle or jar placed near a fire would at once 

 be cracked into pieces. Sir George Nares would, 

 therefore, have acted wrongly if he had added 

 largely to the weights by loading the sledges with 

 lime-juice jars or bottles, knowing perfectly well, 

 as all arctic travelers know, that, in that form, it 

 could not be used during intense cold. He, how- 

 ever, placed lime-juice in the depots, to be picked 

 up during the return-marches after the thaw had 

 set in. 



If lime-juice would have prevented the out- 

 break of scurvy in the traveling-parties, as has 

 since been alleged, there was gross neglect among 

 those who were responsible in this country, for 

 not having supplied the antiscorbutic in a form 

 in which it would have been possible to have 

 used it during intense cold. It has since been 

 found that it might have been supplied in loz- 

 enges or in the pemmican. But there was no 

 neglect of any kind on the part of Sir George 

 Nares, who did all that close study of the subject, 



