NARES' EXPEDITION (1875) 127 



exploring the neighbourhood. The floebergs and rugged 

 ice piled directly against the precipitous face of the cliffs, 

 with an extremely rough pack in constant motion, effectu- 

 ally prevented sledges being dragged round the cape ; but 

 fortunately there was a fair prospect of finding a level 

 road overland to the sea on the other side of the cape 

 in the spring. On the 27th September, Aldrich had 

 succeeded in reaching latitude 82° 48' N., a higher latitude 

 than had ever before been attained, Parry's 82° 45' reached 

 in 1827 having now been beaten. 



As regards the use of dogs, Aldrich on this journey 

 formed the opinion that when the snow becomes more 

 than a foot deep, they are not of much value. 



The large sledge-party which succeeded in establishing 

 a depot of provisions at Cape Joseph Henry returned on 

 September 14th. Out of the party of twenty-one men 

 and three officers, seven men and one officer returned to 

 the ship badly frost-bitten, three of them so severely as 

 to render amputation necessary, the patients being con- 

 fined to their beds for the greater part of the winter. 

 The frost-bites were attributable entirely to the wet 

 sludgy state of some of the ice that had to be crossed. 

 The temperature ranged between 15° above and 22° below 

 zero. On this journev attention was drawn to the fact 

 that the barrels of the breech-loading fowling-pieces 

 became contracted by the cold to such an extent that the 

 paper cartridges which at a higher temperature fitted well 

 could not be inserted until the outside paper had been 

 stripped off. 



The sun disappeared on the 11th October, but for some 

 time afterwards there was twilight during five or six hours 

 of the day. The first sign of an aurora was seen on the 

 26th October ; on the 27th stars were visible at noon. 

 On the 8th November, with a perfectly clear sky, the 

 noon twilight was insufficient to enable one to make out 



