86 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. AI>RIL 



preliminary ten days' journey, and started in apparently 

 most excellent health. 



Had the Committee appointed to enquire into the 

 outbreak of scurvy considered this fact, they would 

 doubtless not have introduced the following paragraph 

 in their report. 



' How far, with due regard to the length of the 

 travelling season, these evils could have been mitigated 

 by a recourse to short journeys, utilized for laying out 

 depots of provisions, and other preparatory purposes, 

 prior to those of a more extended character undertaken 

 to effect the main objects of the Expedition, we are 

 not prepared to say, but it is obvious that the adoption 

 of such a system would have afforded an amount and 

 description of that previous training so essential to the 

 success of sledging, far more efficacious than the exercise 

 obtained during the winter, but limited by its severity.' 



The following are extracts from my orders to 

 Lieutenant Beaumont : 



' Equipped and provisioned for an absence of fifty- 

 six days, you will cross Eobeson Channel and explore 

 tlie coast of Greenland towards the north and eastward. 



* Your party, although not as strong (numerous) as I 

 would wish, admits of two sledges being advanced for 

 the time mentioned, under the command of yourself and 

 Lieutenant Wyatt Eawson, an officer in whom I have 

 the fullest trust, and of the two others placing a depot 

 of provisions for your use when returning. 



c Dr. Coppinger, in addition to his medical duties, 

 will take executive command of the two sledges thus em- 

 ployed ; George W. Emmerson, chief boatswain's mate, 

 taking charge of the sledge "Alert" under his orders. 



