1917] CAPE SABINE TO CLARENCE HEAD 289 



locating a barrel with the head marked "Alert." Within 

 the barrel was a copper tube containing two records 

 written by Captain Nares, one of which read as follows: 



Arctic Expedition 

 H.M.S. AleH 



Her Majesty's ships Alert and Discovery here on their way south 

 to Port Foulke. The Alert wintered in Latitude 82° 27' N., Longi- 

 tude 61° 22' W., inside grounded ice. The Discovery wintered in a 

 sheltered harbor in Latitude 81° 44' N., Longitude 65° 30' W. 



The sledge crews of the Alerty after a severe journey over the ice, 

 succeeded in attaining Latitude 83° 30' N., and the coast-line from 

 the winter quarters of the Alert to the northward and westward was 

 explored to Latitude 82° 23' N., Longitude 84° 26' W., Cape Colum- 

 bia, the northernmost cape, being in Latitude 83° 7' N., Longitude 

 70° 30' W. 



Sledge parties from the Discovery explored the north coast of 

 Greenland to Lat. 82° 21' N., Long. 52° W. (approximately), a dis- 

 tance of 70 miles beyond Repulse Harbor. 



No land was sighted to the northward of the above explorations 

 except a few small islands at the extreme of the Greenland coast 

 explored. 



Lady Franklin Sound was explored by the Discovery and was 

 found to run S. W. 65 miles, and terminated in two small bays; also 

 Peterman's Fiord for 19 miles, and was then found to be impass- 

 able for sledges, owing to glacier ice. 



A seam of coal 25 yards long, 22 feet thick, was found in the 

 neighborhood of the Discovery's Whiter Quarters. 



Employed in sledge traveling. Four deaths have occurred: 



Neils C. Peterson, Interpreter, at winter quarters on the 14th 

 May, from the effects of a severe frost bite (which necessitated a 

 part of each foot being amputated) followed by exhaustion and 

 scorbutic taint. 



H.M.S. . Alert. — George Porter, Gunner, R.N. on the 8th June of 

 scurvy and general debility, when absent on a sledge journey, and 

 was buried in the floe in Lat. 82° 41' N. 



H.M.S. Discovery. — James I. Hand, A.B. of scurvy on the 13th 

 June and Charles W. Paul, A.B. of scurvy on the 29th of June; both 

 buried in Polaris Bay. 



The ice in the Polar Sea broke up on the 20th day of July, and on 

 the 31st the Alert left her Winter Quarters, and on the 12th of August 



