RESULTS OF TEE ENGLISH ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



411 



ranges of ice-hummocks from thirty to fifty feet 

 high, and sometimes a quarter of a mile wide. 

 The hummock-ridges were composed of a vast 

 collection of debris of the previous summer's bro- 

 ken-up pack-ice, which had been refrozen during 

 the winter into one chaotic, rugged mass of angu- 

 lar blocks of every possible shape. The inter- 

 mediate floes of ancient ice were very rugged and 

 heavy for traveling, and never as much as a mile 

 wide. Their surfaces were thickly studded over 

 with rounded, blue -topped ice -humps ten to 

 twenty feet high, the depressions between them 

 being filled with snow deeply scored into ridges 

 by the wind. The whole formed the roughest 

 line of way imaginable. At first there was a faint 

 hope that such broken masses were confined to 

 the vicinity of the coast, and that farther out to 

 sea the ice would be smoother. But this proved 

 not to be the case, and the whole polar ocean in 

 this part is of the same character. 



Over such ice the northern division had to 

 fight its desperate way, going five times over the 

 same ground, and while working ten and twelve 

 hours a day, and walking over at least a dozen 

 miles, only making at most two miles good. It is 

 impossible to conceive more disheartening work, 

 nor work that could more fully try the highest 

 qualities of the men. No excitement, no rest, no 

 change ; but continuous and intensely hard work, 

 with scarcely any progress, accompanied by hard- 

 ships and privations of no ordinary kind. Sup- 

 ported by a sense of duty, by that devoted cour- 

 age and confidence in their officers which makes 

 seamen of the British Navy follow whitherso- 

 ever they are led, these gallant fellows struggled 

 on until they dropped. Not a single murmur or 

 complaint was heard throughout the journey, 

 which, for the difficulties encountered and over- 

 come, is without a parallel in the whole annals of 

 arctic sledge-traveling. 



On the 16th of April the fatal disease made 

 its appearance, which so enhanced the difficulties 

 of this memorable journey. One of the men 

 broke down, and had to be put on the sledge. 

 This was equivalent to losing two men, fdr while 

 his dragging power was lost, his weight was add- 

 ed to what the others had to drag. Still they 

 zealously and cheerfully pushed on, resolved to 

 march northward to the utmost limits of their 

 endurance. Two days afterward a second man 

 broke down with scurvy ; and all were becoming 

 much weaker. Yet they lost no particle of their 

 pluck and determination to work onward until 

 they dropped. By the 6th of May there were 

 three men helpless on the sledges, the rest 



suffering from great stiffness and pains in the 

 legs. 



At length, on the 10th of May, the most north- 

 erly camp was pitched, and on the 12th Captain 

 Markham hoisted the British flag in 83° 20' 

 26", the most northern point ever reached by 

 man. Next day they were homeward bound. 

 Never, in the whole annals of arctic prowess, 

 full as they are of deeds of gallantry and devo- 

 tion, had men persevered so long, and with such 

 desperate tenacity, actuated solely by duty and 

 by the desire to uphold the honor of their coun- 

 try. 



The return-march showed how fearfully close 

 they had gone to the limit of safety. Very soon 

 two more men were attacked, and on the 27th of 

 May Captain Markham resolved to abandon the 

 boat. It was a hazardous alternative. If they 

 continued to drag this additional weight while 

 becoming weaker every day, they might never 

 reach the land ; while there was a probability of 

 finding a lane of water, between the ice and the 

 shore, which would be impassable without a 

 boat. Several of the men, who still tried to 

 drag, were in great pain ; but they held out most 

 pluckily, sticking to the drag-ropes until they 

 could stand no longer. Day by day they got 

 worse. On the 30th Captain Markham's sledge 

 was dragged by three men and himself, entailing 

 labor which would soon have overpowered them. 

 At length they reached the land, and Lieutenant 

 Parr was dispatched to the ship for succor. 

 They were saved ; but help came too late for 

 one poor fellow, who sank to his last rest the 

 day before assistance arrived. Of all that zeal- 

 ous company of strong and brave men who left 

 the ship on April 3d, only four could do work 

 when they returned on June 14th, after an ab- 

 sence of seventy-two days. The sledge was 

 dragged alongside the ship by Captain Markham 

 himself and three men. 



Aldrich's party to the westward also suffered, 

 but not so severely, and they returned after hav- 

 ing discovered three hundred miles of new coast- 

 line. 



It must have been a heart-rending sight to see 

 those gallant fellows returning prostrate with 

 disease. Yet, at the same time, it was a soul- 

 stirring and glorious sight. For those men had 

 performed an act of heroism which has seldom 

 had a parallel. In spite of a wasting disease, 

 they had remained resolute and undaunted, and 

 had struggled on to complete the duty on Tjhich 

 they were employed, in the face of dangers and 

 hardships at which men in full health might well 



