332 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. May. 



was most inexplicable and unlooked-for. It was, how- 

 ever, encouraging to learn from the reports of our 

 predecessors how transient the attacks had usually 

 proved, and how quickly the patients recovered with 

 rest, the advance of summer, and a change to a more 

 generous diet. Nevertheless, so serious an outbreak 

 naturally made me anxious for the health and safety 

 of the numerous travellers absent from the ship ; but 

 as they were the strongest men out of two crews 

 specially selected for Arctic service, I certainly never 

 contemplated such a complete breakdown as actually 

 occurred. 



Mr. Conybeare arrived on board the ' Alert ' on 

 the 31st of May, after a journey of nine days from 

 Discovery Bay. Owing to the water having forced its 

 way up through the tidal-cracks and overflowed the 

 ice in many places, he had experienced even greater 

 difficulty in travelling up Eobeson Channel than any 

 of his predecessors. Off Cape Frederick VII. he met 

 with three pools of water, the largest of which was 

 over three hundred yards in length. 



Mr. Conybeare was the bearer of despatches from 

 Captain Stephenson, which informed me that Lieu- 

 tenant Archer had returned to the ' Discovery ' on the 

 2nd of May, after having explored Lady Franklin 

 Sound to a distance of sixty-seven miles in a south- 

 west direction from Discovery Bay, where it termi- 

 nated in two fiords. Mr. Archer reported that — 



1 The inlet originally called Lady Franklin Strait 

 may be described as a deep sound or fiord, which 

 extends for a distance of sixty-five miles into Grinnell 

 Land. It is nine miles broad at the mouth, and at a 



