Nov. 9, 1876] 



NATURE 



39 



engineer, also assisted me materially as commander of a 

 sledge party. 



On May 3 Lieut. Giflfard returned with news from Lieut. 

 Pelham Aldrich up to April 25, his twenty-second day out 

 from the ship. He reported that all his crew were well 

 and cheerful, but that the soft snow was causing very 

 heavy and slow travelling. 



Up to this time all had gone well with the expedition. 

 The two ships had advanced as far north as was possible; 

 they were admirably placed for exploration and other 

 purposes ; and the sledge crews, formed of men in full 

 liealth and strength, had obtained a fair start on their 

 journeys under as favourable circumstances as possible. 

 On May 3 Dr. Thomas Colan reported that five men had 

 scorbutic symptoms ; however, as each case had some 

 predisposing cause, I was not alarmed until on the 8th 

 the three ice quartermasters and two able seamen return- 

 ing from slsdge service were attacked, and by June 8 

 fourteen of the crew of the Alert and three men belonging 

 to the Discovery who happened to be on board, forming 

 the majority of the number of men then present, had been 

 or were under the doctor's care for the same wasting dis- 

 order. Capt, Stephenson also reported that four more of 

 his crew had been attacked. 



Although many of the sledge crews formerly employed 

 on Arctic research had been attacked by this disease some 

 had totally escaped ; therefore, considering the ample 

 equipment and carefully prepared provisions with which 

 the A/ertand Discovery were provided, its outbreak was 

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

 most encouraging to learn from the report of former expe- 

 ditions how transient the attacks had usually proved, and 

 how readily the patients recovered with rest, the advance 

 of summer, and a change to a more generous diet. 



On May 9, by the return of Lieut. May and Mr. Egerton 

 from Greenland, whither they had carried suppHes and 

 succeeded in discovering a practicable overland route im- 

 mediately east of Cape Brevort fit for the use of the 

 returning sledges should the ice break up, I received 

 news of Lieut. Beaumont's party up to May 4, when he 

 was within two miles of Cape Stanton. From their place 

 of crossing the Straits they found that the coast line for 

 nearly the entire distance to Cape Stanton was formed 

 either by precipitous cliffs or very steep snow slopes, the 

 bases of which receive the direct and unchecked pressure 

 of the northern pack as it drifts from the north-westward 

 and strikes against that part of the coast nearly at right 

 angles. The floe- bergs, at their maximum sizes, were 

 pressed high up one over the other against the steep shore; 

 the chaos outside was something indescribable, and the 

 travelling the worst that can possibly be imagined, seven 

 days being occupied in moving forward only twenty miles. 

 Being quite uncertain when such a road might become 

 impassable by the ice breaking up in May as it did in 

 1872, a depot of provisions, sufficient for a return journey 

 by land, was wisely left, but Lieut. Beaumont's journey was 

 thus shortened cpnsiderably. 



As nearly every south-westerly wind we experienced 

 at Floeberg Beach changed its direction to north-west 

 before it blew itself out, the coast of Greenland north of 

 Cape Brevort must necessarily be a very wild one as 

 regards ice-pressure, and a most uncertain coast for navi- 

 gation. A vessel once caught in the pack-ice off that 

 shore, if not crushed at once, runs a great risk of being 

 carried by it to the eastward round the northern coast, as 

 pointed out by Admiral Sir George Back, Kt., F.R.S. 



During the first week in May the temperature rising to 

 zero enabled me to remove the snow from over the sky- 

 lights and bull's-eyes and let in light between decks, but 

 owing to there being no skylight over the lower deck it 

 still remained very dark. I would here remark, Sir, how 

 very important it is that Arctic ships should, if possible, 

 be fitted with a large skylight above the ship's company's 

 living deck. 



On May 24 Lieut. Giffard returned on board, after 

 depositing Lieut. Pelham Aldrich's last dep6t of pro- 

 visions, he and his crew having performed their im- 

 portant work well and expeditiously ; but I am sorry to 

 add that he brought Dr. Colan two more invalids. The 

 attack occurring on his outward journey, as it was of 

 vital importance that he pushed on, Lieut. Giffard was 

 necessarily obliged to leave them in a snow hut for 

 five days, one man taking care of the other as best he 

 could until the party returned. Lieut. Giffard acted with 

 great judgment,^decision, and consideration on this oc- 

 casion, and the two invalids recovered before the ship 

 broke out of winter quarters. 



On June i Mr. Crawford Conybeare arrived with 

 news from the Discovery up to May 22. Lieut. Archer 

 had completed his examination of the opening in the land 

 west of Lady Franklin Sound, proving it to be a deep 

 fiord terminating in mountainous land, with glacier- 

 covered valleys in the interior. 



Lieut. Reginald B. Fulford, with the men returned 

 from Lieut. Archer's party, then transported two boats 

 across Hall's Basin to assist Lieut. Beaumont in his 

 return later in the season. Capt. Stephenson, accom- 

 panied by Mr. Henry C. Hart, naturalist, overtook 

 this party on the 12th at Polaris Bay. On the following 

 day, the American flag being hoisted, a brass tablet pre- 

 pared in England was erected at the foot of Capt. Hall's 

 grave with due solemnity. It bore the following inscrip- 

 tion : — 



"Sacred 



to the Memory of 



Captain C. F. Hall, 



of the U.S. Ship Polaris, 



who sacrificed his Life 



in the advancement of Science, 



on the 8th November, 1871. 



" This Tablet has been erected by the British Polar 



Expedition of 1875, who, following in his footsteps, 



have profited by his experience." 



Dr. Coppinger, when returning from assisting Lieuten- 

 ant Beaumont, had visited Capt. Hall's Cairn at Cape 

 Brevort, and the boat depot in Newman's Bay, and con- 

 veyed the few articles of any value to the Discovery. The 

 boat itself, with the exception of one hole easily repair- 

 able, was in a serviceable condition. Capt. Stephenson 

 returned to the Discovery on May 18, leaving Lieut. 

 Fulford and Dr. Coppinger on the Greenland shore to 

 explore Petermann Fiord. Mr. Crawford Conybeare having 

 reported that the travelling along shore in Robeson 

 Channel was fast becoming impracticable in consequence 

 of the ice being in motion near the shore, his party were 

 kept on board the Alert. 



On the evening of June 8, Lieut. A. A. C. Parr arrived 

 on board, most unexpectedly, with the distressing intelli- 

 gence that nearly the whole of the crew belonging 

 to the northern division of sledges were attacked with 

 scurvy, and in want of immediate assistance. Commander 

 Markham, and the few men who were able to keep on 

 their feet, had succeeded in conveying the invalids to the 

 neighbourhood of Cape Joseph Henry, thirty miles 

 distant from the ship, but each day was rapidly adding to 

 the intensity of the disease, and, while lessening the 

 powers of those still able to work, adding to the number 

 of the sick, and consequently, alarmingly increasing 

 the weight which had to be dragged on the sledges. 

 Under these circumstances, Lieut. Parr, with his usual 

 brave determination, and knowing exactly his own 

 powers, nobly volunteered to bring me the news, and so 

 obtain relief for his companions. Starting with only an 

 alpenstock, and a small allowance of provisions, he 

 completed his long solitary walk, over a very rough icy 

 road, deeply covered with newly fallen snow, within 

 twenty-four hours. 



Arrangements were immediately made to proceed to 



