256 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. March 



exploration of the coast of North Greenland, it was 

 desirable that he should confer with Captain Stephen- 

 son, under whose directions the Greenland party would 

 be organized ; accordingly Eawson was to accompany 

 Mr. Egerton. 



As the Expedition subsequently experienced a 

 severe attack of scurvy, which has been attributed in 

 some quarters to errors in the sledge dietaries, I may 

 here conveniently refer to the subject, and give my 

 reasons for adopting the scale of diet used by the 

 travellers from the ' Alert ' and ' Discovery.' In doing 

 this, I fear that I shall leave the actual cause of the 

 outbreak of scurvy in as undefined a state as others 

 who have endeavoured to explain it. 



On the return of the Expedition to England a 

 committee, consisting of three admirals and two 

 medical men, was appointed to enquire into the causes 

 of the outbreak of scurvy. On the Tth of May, 1877, 

 they reported, ' We attribute the early outbreak of 

 scurvy in the spring sledging parties of the Expedition 

 to the absence of lime-juice from the sledge dietaries.' 

 The italics are my own. 



Soon after the publication of this report Admirals 

 Sir George H. Eichards and Sir Leopold M'Clintock, 

 the two surviving members of the Arctic Committee of 

 1875, and whose experiences in Arctic sledge-travelling 

 are certainly greater than those of any other living men, 

 thus expressed their views in the public press. Sir 

 George Eichards wrote under date of the 20th of 

 May, 1877 :— 



1 This can be no more than an opinion, as it is posi- 

 tively unsusceptible of proof; but it is entirely opposed 



