5o6 



NA TURE 



[April 12, 1877 



veiling in company to Cape Joseph Henry — latitude 82'5o. 

 From that pointMarkham struck straight northonApril 1 1, 

 with fifteen men and three sledges, weighing in all 6^079 

 lbs., or 405 lbs. — 3I cwts. — per man. They carried two 

 ice-boats with them, the first of which, weighing 740 lbs., 

 had to be abandoned on April 19, while the second, 

 weighing 440 lbs., their only chance of safety if the ice 

 should break up, had to be abandoned on May 27, while 

 they were still seven miles or so from the nearest land. 

 The ice on the surface of the floes was covered generally 

 with snow some three feet deep, and the men sank in it 

 beyond their knees. If the Palaeocrystic sea had been a 

 decently level plain covered with loose powdery snow, the 

 work to get to the pole would have been hard enough. 

 The party found it much such a place as South Kensington 

 might be after an earthquake had toppled half the houses 

 into ruin. There was seldom a floe or flat ice-surface 

 of any extent — rarely as much as a mile in any direction 

 — never more than a mile and three-quarters. " For the 

 last ten or fifteen days of our outward journey," says 

 Markham, " floes were few and far between, and it might 

 almost be said that our road lay entirely through hum- 

 mocks and deep snow- drifts." A hummock is a huge 

 mass of ice-blocks piled up like builder's rubbish. The 

 highest mass measured was 43 feet 2 inches, but many 

 were observed which exceeded that height, and were 

 estimated as between 50 and 60 feet. On the heavier 

 floes were high hillocks apparently formed by snow drift, 

 the accumulation probably of years, resembling diminutive 

 snow mountains, and varying from 20 to over 50 feet in 

 height. It was across this sort of material that the party 

 had to drag themselves to the pole. They found that they 

 could scarcely ever get along without " double banking." 

 They had two sledge crews for three sledges, and they had 

 calculated to pull the heavy sledge by the whole fifteen 

 men, and to return for the lighter sledges which were to 

 come up together, each dragged by its seven or eight 

 men. Thus three miles of ground would have had to 

 be traversed for every mile made good. In fact even 

 the smaller sledges needed almost always the whole 

 fifteen men, and after the larger ice-boat was abandoned 

 on April 19th, there was little difference of weight between 

 them. Thus each mile in advance cost five miles walk- 

 ing, three of them full loaded, two through the snow and 

 without the steadying support of the drag-ropes. The back 

 journeys were found almost as fatiguing as the others. 

 From April i6th (Cape Joseph Henry) to May 12th, 

 the most strenuous efforts carried them from 82.49J 

 to 83.20.26, i.e. 31 minutes northing, or about thirty- 

 six English miles in twenty- six days, an average 

 of \\ miles a-day advanced, and of seven miles walked. 

 The advance was soon impeded by the illness of the 

 men. It is on the 14th— eleven days from the ship, three 

 days from the depot and last land at Cape Joseph Henry 

 — that v\7e first find the ominous entry, " pain in his ankle 

 and knee, both of which exhibited slight symptoms of 

 puffiness." On the i6th the patient had to be put on one 

 of the sledges, so that already there were only fourteen 

 men at the drag-ropes and 160 lbs. more to drag. "On the 

 17th another man cannot drag but is just able to hobble 

 after us," carrying, that is to say, his own weight, but only 

 for half the day. On the 19th both had to be carried, 

 and another man fell out from the drag-ropes. Although 



they dropped their ice-boat, 740 lbs. weight, on the 19th, 

 on the 25th a fourth man is reported weak. A fifth man 

 " can scarcely walk " on May 2nd, and on May 3rd all five 

 are " utterly helpless and therefore useless." On May 

 4th " more of the men are complaining of stiffness and 

 pain in their legs, which we fear are only the premoni- 

 tory symptoms." Here is a glimpse of the party on 

 May 6th :— 



" The sick men are invariably the cause of great delay 

 in starting, as they are perfectly helpless, being even 

 unable to dress or undress without assistance. We appear 

 to have arrived at a perfect barrier of hummocks and 

 portions of floes, all broken and squeezed up and covered 

 with deep snow. It is possible we may be able to pene- 

 trate these obstacles, eventually reaching larger and more 

 level floes, on which we may be able to make more rapid 

 progress. We ascended one large hummock, from the 

 summit of which the prospect was anything but en^ 

 couraging — nothing but one vast illimitable sea of hum^ 

 mocks. The height of this hummock was ascertained by 

 means of a lead line, and was found to be from its summit 

 to the surface of the snow at its base' 43 feet 3 

 inches. It did not appear to be a floe-berg, but a mass 

 of hummocks squeezed up and cemented together by 

 several layers of snow, making it resemble one huge solid 

 piece. The travelling has been exceedingly heavy, and 

 with the weights on the sledges augmented, the deep 

 snow, and a third of our band hors de combat, it is next 

 to impossible to advance many feet without resorting tc 

 ' standing pulls,' or the endless ' one, two, three, haul.' " 



On the 7th they had to "advance with one sledge 

 unload it, return with it empty, and then bring on the 

 gear and invalids." On the 8th " the interior of our tent; 

 have more the appearance of hospitals than the habita 

 tions of strong working men. In addition to the cripples 

 four men are suffering from snow blindness." It is in thi 

 condition that they struggle through the sea of hummocks 



" The hummocks around us are of different height; 

 and bulk, varying from small fragments of ice to hugi 

 piles over 40 feet high. Some of these larger ones ar 

 simply masses of squeezed-up ice, whilst others of grea 

 magnitude, but perhaps not quite so high, are the regula 

 floe-bergs. Between these hummocks, and consequentl; 

 along the only road that is practicable for our sledgej 

 the snow has accumulated in drifts to a great depth, ant 

 these forming into ridges render the travelling all th 

 more difficult. Some of the tops of these ridges ar 

 frozen hard, and it is no uncommon occurrence to stejj 

 from deep snow through which we are floundering up t 

 our waists, on to a hard frozen piece, and vice vers& 

 Occasionally these ridges are only partially frozen, suffi 

 ciently only to deceive one, which makes it exceedingl 

 disagreeable and laborious to get through." 



On May 10, " with five out of our little force total! 

 prostrate, four others exhibiting decided symptoms of tbj 

 same complaint," Commander Markham sees that it woulj 

 be " folly to persist pushing on." They have been fort 

 days out and are only provisioned for thirty more. 

 the 1 2th those left decently strong go out in the mornin 

 for their farthest north — \\ miles out from the camp, 39c 

 from the pole. There they sang the " Union Jack of 01 

 England," the " Grand Palaeocrystic Sledging Chorus 

 winding up, like loyal subjects, with " God save tl 

 Queen." When they got back to the sledge they broacht 

 a magnum of whisky sent for the purpose by a geni 

 and henceforth famous ecclesiastical potentate, "tl 

 Dean of Dundee," smoked a single cigar apiece, pr 

 sented them ad hoc before leaving the ship, air 



