114 THE SEA. 



power of those still able to work. Parr, with hrave determination, started alone, with 

 only an alpenstock and a small allowance of provisions, and completed his long- and solitary 

 walk over a very rough icy road, deeply covered with newly-fallen snow, within twenty- 

 four hours. If, indeed, a large part of Markham's party could have done it at all, it would 

 have taken them, with their heavy loads, a week to ten days to accomplish the same distance. 

 No time was lost in making- arrangements for their succour, and Captain Nares himself, 

 with two strong detachments, started at midnight. By making forced marches, Lieutenant 

 May, Dr. Moss, and a seaman, with a light dog-sledge, laden with appropriate medical 

 stores, reached the camp fifty hours from the time that Lieutenant Parr had left it, but, 

 unfortunately, too late to save the life of George Porter, gunner R.M.A., who had 

 expired a few hours previously, and was already buried in the snow. Of the original 

 seventeen members of the party, only five the two officers and three of the men were 

 able to drag the sledges. Three others manfully kept to their feet to the last, but were 

 so weak that they were constantly falling, and sometimes fainting, while the remaining 

 eight had utterly succumbed, and had to be carried on the sledges. 



This is not the place for a medical discussion. Captain Nares' conduct in partially 

 neglecting to supply the parties with sufficient of that great anti-scorbutic, lime-juice, 

 has been severely handled, and not without some show of justice. On the other hand, 

 it must be remembered that the disease attacked a part of the crews who had remained 

 on both vessels and had been well supplied with all dietary and medical necessaries. At 

 one time thirty-six cases were under treatment on the Alert, making it resemble a naval 

 hospital. 



Captain Nares may be allowed to give in brief his reasons for returning home that 

 season. The enfeebled state of his crew precluded the hope that, even when recovered, 

 they would accomplish as much as, or at all events more than, had been already done. He 

 believes that from any position in Smith's Sound attainable by a ship it would be impossible 

 to advance nearer the Pole by sledges. Furthermore, that all that he could have hoped 

 to accomplish by stopping another winter was perhaps an extended exploration of Grant 

 Land to the south-westward, and Greenland for perhaps fifty miles further to the north- 

 eastward or eastward. And to his credit it must be scored that he brought the vessels 

 home in nearly as good condition as they would have returned from any foreign station. After 

 many a fight with the elements and many an encounter with the ice, the Alert and 

 Discorery reached our shores safely on October 27th, 1870. The reader knows the rest, 

 and if he is of our mind will not grudge the honours bestowed on men who, if they had 

 not accomplished all that was expected, had at least done more than any of their pre- 

 decessors in the frozen fields of the far north. 



