HISTORICAL SUMMARY 107 



the Alert for northern explorations. One party, under Com- 

 mander Markham, was to push northward over the frozen 

 ocean; the other, under Lieutenant Aldrich, to explore the 

 north coast of Grinnell land. Markham, after great toil and 

 hardships, hauling heavy sledges and boats over exceedingly 

 rough ice, and with five of his eighteen men helpless from the 

 effects of scurvy, succeeded in reaching a point on the ice in 

 latitude 83 20' 26", the farthest north to that date. The 

 health of the men became worse on the return journey, and if 

 Lieutenant Parr had not, by a forced march of twenty-four 

 hours, reached the ship for assistance, all would probably have 

 been lost; as it was, one died and eleven others had to be 

 dragged to the ship. 



Lieutenant Aldrich surveyed two hundred and twenty miles 

 of new coast, reaching, on the 18th of May, Point Albert, in 

 82 16', and 85 33' W. His party, also attacked by scurvy, 

 xvould not have reached the ship without assistance. 



Exploring parties were, at the same time, in the field from 

 the Discovery. Lieutenant Archer explored Franklin sound 

 and reached the head of Archer fiord. Lieutenant Beaumont 

 left the ship with two sleds, and, after first visiting the Alert, 

 crossed Robeson channel to Repulse harbour, on the coast of 

 Greenland. He succeeded in reaching with one man, the 

 eastern side of Sherard Osborne fiord, in 82 20' N. and 50 

 45' W., on the 20th of May. The return was made under dis- 

 tressing circumstances ; only Beaumont and one man were free 

 from scurvy when Repulse harbour was reached. The ice in 

 Robeson channel was too rotten to cross with his crew of in- 

 valids, and but for the timely arrival of a relief party all would 

 have perished. Two men died, and only with great difficulty 

 did the remainder reach the ship. Owing to the scurvy, Captain 

 Nares wisely determined to return home. The disease had 

 attacked almost every man on the ships outside the officers, but 

 it is a mystery why it should have played such ravages on an 



