FOREWORD xxiii 



carried them safely 1300 miles to Labrador, where 

 they were picked up by the Tigress. During the win- 

 ter one of the Eskimo women presented the party 

 with a baby, so that their number had increased dur- 

 ing the arduous experience. Meanwhile the Polaris 

 had been beached on the Greenland shore, and those 

 remaining on the ship were eventually also rescued. 



In 1875 Great Britain began an elaborate attack 

 on the Pole via what was now known as the American 

 route, two ships most lavishly equipped being des- 

 patched under command of George Nares. He suc- 

 ceeded in navigating the Alert fourteen miles further 

 north than the Polaris had penetrated four years pre- 

 vious. Before the winter set in, Aldrich on land 

 reached 82° 48', which was three miles nearer the Pole 

 than Parry's mark made forty-eight years before, and 

 the following spring Markham gained 83° 20' on the 

 polar ocean. Other parties explored several hundred 

 miles of coast line. But Nares was unable to cope 

 with the scurvy, which disabled thirty-six of his men, 

 or with the severe frosts, which cost the life of one 

 man and seriously injured others. 



The next expedition to this region was that sent 

 out under the auspices of the United States govern- 

 ment and commanded by Lieutenant — now Major- 

 General — A. W. Greely, U. S. A., to establish at 

 Lady Franklin Bay the American circumpolar sta- 

 tion (1881). Greely during the two years at Fort 

 Conger carried on extensive explorations of Ellesmere 

 Land and the Greenland coast, and by the assistance 

 of his two lieutenants, Lockwood and Brainard, 

 wrested from Great Britain the record which she had 



